Rebecca in Austin, Texas, wonders why the terms cold sore and fever blister describe pretty much the same thing. Also, why do we say we have a cold, but we have the flu? The word flu comes from the Italian word for influence, influenza, and is a reference to an old belief that a contagious illness was influenced by celestial movements. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Fever Blister vs. Cold Sore”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Rebecca Hamilton. I live in Austin, Texas.
Hi, Rebecca. Welcome to the show.
Why do we refer to cold sores and fever blisters using different terms when they’re basically the same thing, and especially when the different terms seem to be very opposite in description, cold versus fever? And then secondly, why do we say that we catch a cold versus getting the flu?
Well, it goes back to the idea of the misapprehension that colds always occur in cold weather, that you get a cold from cold, rainy weather, and you’re more susceptible then to that kind of illness. But that’s not true.
You can have a cold in the summer, right?
Right, or in hot weather. As we know, in San Diego in January, it’s winter on the calendar, but not in the streets, and you still get those colds and the flu.
Right. And so cold sores are just associated with a cold or sickness, even though they derive from a virus that has nothing to do with colds. It was just a misunderstanding of the biology.
But you can get a cold sore without a fever, yet they’re called fever blisters. They aren’t limited to fevers.
Yeah, as far as I know, the blisters were just associated with the idea of fever for some people just because they’re eruptions that might occur when you have a fever.
Yeah, there’s something else that happens, too. If cold sores are actually a type of herpes, that can be exacerbated in cold weather because of the dryness and the temperature. And so they are more likely to erupt or to appear, even though they were already there, just because it’s cold.
You ask an interesting question about why we call it a cold and the flu. They’re slippery like that. I mean, I think in Britain they would just say, I’m home with flu, right? The drops out in that case.
But when you talk about a cold, it’s something that’s more kind of garden variety. It’s not necessarily something that’s come upon a population. You just pick it up here and there. Versus the flu, which is a little more specific, I think.
When a flu is going around, people are aware of it and watching for it, right? And what’s striking about the word influenza is that it comes from the Italian word influenza, which means influence. And this term was popularized in the mid-18th century when there was an infectious fever raging through Italy.
And people referred to the star’s evil influence because that was a tradition to talk about the influence of the stars influencing human affairs. So it’s got that article in front of the word because it’s a very specific thing that we’re thinking about. The influence.
Like the one thing is coming to get me.
Yeah. Well, thank you very much. You’ve been very helpful.
Thank you, Rebecca. Take care now.
Thanks, Rebecca. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
