Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2010 November 7

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November 7

Term for coincidental repeated appearance of a word

I'm trying to find the term for the coincidental recurring appearance of a particular word or concept. Annoyingly enough, I was looking up déjà, jamais, and presque vu, and related phenomena, when this question occurred to me, but I'm sure I'm not just falling prey to a cognitive illusion; this term exists, at least informally, I am positive! My search-and-wiki-fu has failed me; can anyone help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.69.229.125 (talk) 06:41, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Try Apophenia. The tendency to imagine patterns in random events is called apophenia. --Jayron32 06:56, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply; there's lots of general terms that cover related ground -- obviously, it's like some form of priming or clustering or synchronicity illusion -- but I'm really looking for a very specific term for this particular phenomenon. I don't know, perhaps it's something I've only seen or read somewhere in sci-fi, or dreamed up myself.76.69.229.125 (talk) 07:04, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Baader-Meinhof phenomenon [1][2] Mitch Ames (talk) 07:06, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Eventuated?

I came across this word in Merchant submarine#Soviet Union, but is it actually a word in English? Astronaut (talk) 10:47, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes. The OED has cites back to 1789. It also notes "First used in U.S., and still regarded as an Americanism, though it has been employed by good writers in England." Algebraist 10:51, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

See http://www.onelook.com/?w=eventuate&ls=a. -- Wavelength (talk) 15:32, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

It eventuated that I replaced the word. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:04, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

...eventually. —Tamfang (talk) 00:22, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Oops. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:21, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Vitamin D

Under the subject. Vitamin D

Sub category Cancer, third para. last sentence. What does this mean for male smokers? I have read this sentence 10 times and looked up the meanings but still don't understand what it is trying to convey. Is vitamin D harmful to male smokers? It's not clear. It seems that something was left out of the sentence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.248.187.110 (talk) 17:37, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Vitamin D#Cancer — The sentence in question appears to be: However, in male smokers a 3-fold increased risk for pancreatic cancer in the highest compared to lowest quintile of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration has been found. The structure could be improved, but the meaning seems clear to me: someone took a group of male smokers, ranked them by the concentration of a D metabolite in their blood, split them into five equal groups according to that ranking, and found three times as many pancreatic cancers in the highest-D group as in the lowest. It doesn't quite say that D is harmful for male smokers; their 25-HO-D concentration could be high for some reason other than their diet. —Tamfang (talk) 19:03, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, apparently this study did find that high blood levels of vitamin D actually were found to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer in male smokers in Finland. This is surprising, since so many studies of late have found quite the opposite relationship in the general population, not only for cancer but for many other diseases as well. This site: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/66/20/9802.full offers some information on the study and a few suggestions for the reasons of the findings. Gandydancer (talk) 19:26, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Just as an aside, you always have to be careful with regional studies. seemingly insignificant differences in culturally-specific behavior can have significant statistical impacts. I remember reading about contradictory research which showed that heavy coffee consumption led to higher rates of heart disease in Europe but lower rates in the US - the difference turned out to be that US drinkers used paper filters which absorbed the natural fats in the coffee beans. fascinating stuff, if you share my geekdom. --Ludwigs2 20:02, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

So what are European filters made of? Dismas|^(talk) 12:59, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Wire mesh, I think. Marco polo (talk) 17:21, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Filter coffee:Cafetiere 86.166.42.171 (talk) 20:29, 8 November 2010 (UTC)