Grant answers a caller’s question about the origin of griage, a word used increasingly in clinics where flu shots are dispensed. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Griage”
A while back, Catherine called us from Northern California. She had a question about the word griage. Do you know that word, Martha? I do now. It’s G-R-I-A-G-E. And she said that they were giving flu shots at schools and that the griage are the greeters who give information to the families. And she wanted to know if we knew what it meant.
Well, I had to Google it because it’s a brand, well, not that new. It dates back to about 2002. But griage is an interesting blend of the word greeter and triage. So the griage is either the place in the front of the hospital or the disaster site or the people who man it who greet anybody who’s coming in who needs help.
So you’re a combination of greeting and a combination of triage. So you can direct them to a doctor or you can shunt them over to some other department if that’s who they need.
What an interesting word. I hadn’t run across it until we got that question.
You know, seven years counts as brand new in English.
Brand new.
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