The Language of Medicine: The Patient's Endorsement

Abstract

The lexicon of medicine is dynamic and new words as well as redefined old words are regularly incorporated into medical practice. For most of these words, there are sound reasons for their use. For others, the reasons are not so clear. One example of the latter, the word endorse, has appeared in medical records meaning to describe, note or confirm the presence of something. The typical context is a patient's description of some aspect of illness such as "The patient endorses depressive symptoms." Describing something absent requires a negative, i.e. does not endorse. This meaning of endorse is found in two standard English dictionaries, resurrecting a meaning declared obsolete by yet another English dictionary. Except for that fact of its widespread use in medical records and published literature, there seems to be no particular reason why some use the word in place of more transitive and arguably more precise words to describe what a patient experiences of illness.