Monday, October 18, 2010

What's the difference between "prognosis" and "diagnosis"?


Search: diagnosis prognosis

Why: Dr. Gregory House is a diagnostician. Etheline Tenenbaum asks, "What's the prognosis?" It seems like pro means "first" and dia means "2," but I don't know Greek.

Answer: I am so wrong!
Diagnosis means a determination of what's wrong with you right now. Prognosis means an estimation or a projection of how your health will be in the future.

"Dia-" meaning through or across
"Pro-" meaning forward
So the diagnosis identifies the illness, and the prognosis predicts the outcome and the future for the patient. A prognosis could be grim or good.

Source: AnswerBag

The More You Know: Sometimes I am a Tenenbaum for Halloween, but not this year.
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1 comment:

  1. Steve G.October 19, 2010 at 12:01 AM

    Which begs the question, who ARE you going to be for Halloween? I vote Clarissa from Clarissa Explains It All, but 1) that's because she was my first celeb crush and 2) I have no idea how you'd make a "Clarissa" costume.

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