@omegasupremeIn case you missed my late comment yesterday:It’s true that “-itis” usually means “inflammation,” but not always. It’s actually a Greek suffix that makes a noun into an adjective, so it has a meaning like “connected with or pertaining to.” With the Greek word ’nosos" (disease) we got a phrase like “arthritis nosos” (disease pertaining to the joints).
After it was borrowed into English, two meanings developed, a narrower one, like “inflammation” and a wider one, like “a condition likened to a disease.” The first meaning of “disease or inflammation” we are familiar with from countless medical terms. The second one can be found in many nonce words (words made up at the time they are spoken) to give us words like “televisionitis” or “localitis” (obsession with one’s locality).
It’s the send one of these that we find in today’s strip, “eating like a horse” not being an actual medical condition, of course, but it’s a problem that’s likens to a disease, so he has a large disease-like problem of eating that pertains to horses. The “mangia” part is pseudo-Latin, actually more French or Italian-like and refers to eating.
It’s a perfectly good pseudo-scientific comical phrase.
cpalmeresq about 9 years ago
Somehow, Chubby doesn’t look so chubby.
Neil Wick about 9 years ago
@omegasupremeIn case you missed my late comment yesterday:It’s true that “-itis” usually means “inflammation,” but not always. It’s actually a Greek suffix that makes a noun into an adjective, so it has a meaning like “connected with or pertaining to.” With the Greek word ’nosos" (disease) we got a phrase like “arthritis nosos” (disease pertaining to the joints).
After it was borrowed into English, two meanings developed, a narrower one, like “inflammation” and a wider one, like “a condition likened to a disease.” The first meaning of “disease or inflammation” we are familiar with from countless medical terms. The second one can be found in many nonce words (words made up at the time they are spoken) to give us words like “televisionitis” or “localitis” (obsession with one’s locality).
It’s the send one of these that we find in today’s strip, “eating like a horse” not being an actual medical condition, of course, but it’s a problem that’s likens to a disease, so he has a large disease-like problem of eating that pertains to horses. The “mangia” part is pseudo-Latin, actually more French or Italian-like and refers to eating.
It’s a perfectly good pseudo-scientific comical phrase.