Slipped up and a pain

Last week, I was keen on jargon. This week, I’m not. That was short-lived.

I’ve been suffering from a pain in the neck for quite a while and the jargon doctors use to talk about it is starting to get on my nerves — just like the pain in my neck.

Depending on whom I talk to I either have a herniated, prolapsed, protruding, bulging, or even a ruptured disc. The ruptured disc was diagnosed by a scam artist (more on scams here) who was clearly keen on getting out his scalpel, but the other terms seem to mean practically the same. I wish the peple discussing the same problem could agree on which jargon to use.

Just like most people without a medical background I used to talk about slipped discs. I’ve now learned that a disc can’t actually slip anywhere. Instead, it herniates, prolapses, protrudes, bulges or ruptures. Take your pick.

I still like the idea of calling my problem a slipped disc, however, because of the other meanings of slip. Here are just a few I would use to talk about Gordon Brown, the British prime minister:

Somehow, I slipped up, too, and ended up with a slipped disc. It’s a pain in the neck — just like Gordon Brown.

I’ve learned some new expressions to talk about my problems — I hope you have here, too.

I think I’m going to slip away right now, slip into something more comfortable and chill out with a few of my favourite songs, including this one from Paul Simon: Slip slidin' away.

Expressions with slip

to slip (into a recession) = (in eine Rezession) rutschen

let it slip that = die Bemerkung fallen lassen, dass

slip sth. into the conversation = etw. in die Unterhaltung einfließen lassen

give sb. the slip = jmdm. entwischen

slip sb. sth. = jmdm. etw. zustecken

slip out = hinausschlüpfen

slip up =  sich vertun, stolpern

slip of the tongue =  Versprecher

slip sb's mind = vergessen, entfallen

slip away =  verschwinden, sich wegschleichen