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Why is Ob/Gyn pronounced Oh-bee/Gee-why-en?

  • In the US, in my experience, the medical specialties of obstetrics and gynecology are commonly referred to as "Oh-bee/gee-why-en." Does anyone know why? Why not simply pronounce it "obb- gyne" (the first syllables of the two words)? We don't call cardiology "see-ae-arr-dee, " or neurology as "en-eee-you-arr-oh" so why is Ob/gyn special? I sense something sexist about it, but I can't put my finger on it. Thanks to anyone who can answer my silly question.

  • Answer:

    I had never heard the spelled out version of this until today. I am in Australia and we don't call it an Ob-gyn, but I had always seen that written and pronounced it to rhyme with "fob pine" (hard g). I don't buy the whole "it flows better" or "it's easier to say argument" (a) because I'm a linguist and I really don't see anything about either option that makes one easier or harder except for length, and (b) because I had never heard the spelled out option until now, and saying it aloud I certainly don't think it sounds especially natural. I think the people saying it's the obvious and natural contraction are doing so because it's all about what you are used to hearing. I think the reason you, brevator, suspected something sexist afoot is the history in English at least (not sure about other languages) of spelling words that are "rude" in some way so that children won't understand, or to avoid taboos. And yes, it would be sexist if we were spelling a medical term instead of saying it properly because it was to do with women's bits and because those are considered rude or icky. Without looking more closely at the history of the term, I'm not sure we'll know whether the taboo-avoidance angle is correct explanation or not. I wouldn't be surprised, though, especially because of the existence of other taboo-avoiding alternatives for the same word (I've heard "lady parts doctor", for example.)

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Because going to the O.G. to have your vagina checked out would just be silly. Really.

cmoj

OB doesn't stand for anything. It's just the first syllable of the word spelled out. There's a small class of words for which this happened, pretty much all by chance. ID = IDentification. DTs = DeToxification. TB = TuBerculosis. I don't think there's a term for it and I also don't think there's any reason other that custom.

psoas

(For whatever it's worth, ob/gyn isn't totally unique in this regard. There are other medical specialties that get referred to by their initials — E.N.T. for ear-nose-and-throat specialist and G.P. for general practitioner come to mind.)

Now there are two. There are two _______.

You're making a mountain out of a molehill I'm not making a mountain out of anything. I specifically stated in my post that I know it a silly question OB/GYN is spelled out that way because that's the way the profession is listed on charts, hospitals and medical buildings, and it's the standard way they are referred to within the professional community. And it's pronounced that way because acronyms are very prominent in medical language. I think you've missed the entire point of my question actually. Other physician specialties that are abbreviated to initials: IR (Interventional Radiology, even though Interventional Cardiology isn't), PM&R (Physical Med and Rehab), CRS (Colo-rectal surgery aka proctologist), EM (Emergency Med). Yes, so why isn't Obstetrics/gynecology abbreviated to O.G.? Or why don't we call interventional radiology IN RA and pronounce it "eye-en arr-ae"? to avoid pronouncing "gyn" similarly to the second syllable of "vagina." And that would be the sexist angle I was talking about. We still live in a world where teachers get in trouble for using the word http://www.alternet.org/high-school-teacher-trouble-using-word-vagina-biology-class. Perhaps sexist is the wrong word. Puritan might better.

brevator

"Obs" is used in the US to refer to observation in hospitals. The obs unit is the observation unit where you keep people who are not expected to stay longer than 24 hours. So that is one reason why spelling out OB for obstetrics differentiates it. And just to make a small clarification, DT stands for delirium tremens. TB is short for tubercle bacillus.

treehorn+bunny

i call it a gyno (and know others who do too). i also have heard cardio and neuro. other abbreviation differences - it's usually the eye-see-you unless you're talking about the one for babies in which case is the nick-you.

nadawi

Pediatrics = Peds (Peeds) Orthopedics = Ortho, Orthopod Ophthalmology = Optho Cardiology = Cards General Surgery = Gen Surg (Jen Surge) Plastic Surgery = Plastics Dermatology = Derm Obstetrics and Gynecology = OB-Gyn (OB-Guy-n) Hematology and Oncology = Heme-Onc (Heam-Onk) Radiology = Rads (Radds) Urology = Urology Neurology = Neuro Gastroenterology = GI Endocrinology = Endocrine Nephrology = Nephrology Psychiatry = Psych

gramcracker

I've heard people say OB/Gee-why-en as well as OB/guy-nee.

Autumn

FWIW in the UK, everyone in the speciality calls it "O & G" (oh'an'gee). Patients would usually just say "gynaecologist" or "gynae", and in my own experience rarely know what an obstetrician is, since all antenatal care is midwife led.

roofus

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