Dear Nose members,

I am interested in using the list for a pet research project. 

How do ordinary people refer to the common cold across the world?


The British term 'common cold' probably relates to the folk lore that chilling the body causes a cold 
(Helman 1978). This idea was probably first criticised by Benjamin Franklinin in a letter in 1773 who 
said that colds were not caused by exposure to cold which he thought was beneficial but were more 
likely due to- 
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"a particular quality of the air- people catch colds when shut up together in small close rooms, coaches 
and when sitting near and conversing so as to breathe in each others transpiration, frowzy corrupt air,  
from animal substances, and perspired matter from our bodies, which being long shut up in close 
rooms, obtains that kind of putridity which infects us, and occasions the colds, observed upon sleeping 
in, wearing or turning over , such beds, clothes or books, and not their coldness or dampness".
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I would like to collect the terms used for acute upper respiratory tract viral infecton- common cold in 
different languages and cultures around the world.

Do they vary according to the climate etc. ?

I would be very grateful if members could send me their own native terms for the common cold in their 
language together with any comments in English as to how the term originated - if known.

Because of the limitations of the internet and keyboards perhaps you could fax me details for those 
languages that cannot be typed (fax 44-29-20874093).

If I get a good response I shall post the information on the list 

Thanks

Ron Eccles

Helman C.G.  "Feed a cold, starve a fever"-Folk models of infection in an English suburban community, 
and their relation to medical treatment.  Culture medicine and Psychiatry 2 (1978) 107-137.



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