Referring to inoculations as jabs

I can't see any problem with the word 'jab'. After all the needle is 'jabbed' into your arm, or whatever, in the case of inoculations or vaccinations (and yes - I know vaccinations are 'scratches'). As these words tend to be interchangeable these days, 'jab' seems to cover all situations.

Can't say I'd given it any thought until now but it doesn't bother me. Inoculation and vaccination are hard words to remember and jab seems to do the trick. I can be pedantic at times but I'm ok with this particular substitution.

Lol. Even with plastic teeth for most of my life, I still can't think of sitting comfortable in a high back reclining chair!

I expect we'll all be getting our flu jabs this autumn....

Jabs is four letters. Inoculations and vaccinations are both much longer words.

Short words fit better in headlines. Of course they're going to say jabs.

I can be very pedantic when it comes to the correct or incorrect use of English, but the word 'jab' doesn't worry me: it is just useful shorthand. Come to think of it, I had my tetanus 'jab' a couple of weeks ago and it didn't hurt a bit.

(Gardeners like me really should keep up with their tetanus shots; you only need one every 10 years, but tetanus can be prevented this way. If you do not have this protection, tetanus can kill)

Well, some of them are inoculations and then there is vaccination and 'jabs' covers both. And people do play down (trivialise) things of great moment in their lives as a way of coping with them.

Jabs always jars a little with me and so does the word op. Even a small operation is pretty traumatic for the person undergoing it but calling it an op makes it sound so trivial, like having a splinter removed.

Bags

Or rather, of dentistry.

I'm going to stop digging this hole now

But, yes, I do know a lot of people are terrified of the dentist.

I'm not sure I've ever watched a programme about dentistry, jane! Perhaps that explains my ignorance . Not likely to either as we have no TV.

I agree Eleanorre - annoys me to - I think the news should use "proper English"

'Vaccination' comes from the Latin 'vacca' = cow. If you remember, it was cow-pox that was originally used to immunise someone Against small-pox.

Bags why do you think that programmes or news items about dentistry are always preceded by footage of whirring dental handpieces making ghastly screeching noises and descending into someone's mouth?
Of course journalists like to stir up fear or antagonism - that's how they get people to take notice of their articles by engaging people's emotions.
No one would buy any newspapers or watch any television if all there was to read or watch was of the 'Not Many Dead' variety.
I was listening to an item on radio 4 about the children getting their MMR jabs - the reporter was desperately trying to get a young lad to admit he was frightened, but the boy stubbornly insisted he was 'cool' about it

Bags I went to great lengths, performing verbal acrobatics almost, to avoid the i-word too

'Vaccination' originally applied only to smallpox immunisation, but by extension is now used for all kinds of immunisation. In Scotland, as G'mum says they were universally referred to as 'jags'.

However, I wonder if the reporters the OP talks about as using the word 'jab', which she regards as sloppy and which I regard as merely informal, are really using it out of unkindness to needle phobic people, or whether they are just being informal/sloppy. Without hearing/reading the original mentions in the news media, I'm not prepared to label this usage of 'jab' for injection as anything worse than the informality of everyday-speak.

OK, jane. You will have come across more needle phobia than I ever will. Is injection acceptable to a needle-phobe?

Bags In my experience, yes it does. Using the right words and avoiding the wrong ones really helps

Jab were my initials before I married

Jab is usefull enough word - otherwise you have to be very careful not to get innoculation, immunisation and vaccination muddled. Some clever medical type will know all details, we just need to know whether a needle is involved.

But the MMR vaccine is given as an injection. Everyone knows a jab is an injection. Inoculation can be otherwise, as elegran points out.

I understand what you're saying about needle phobia, jane, but does calling an injection a jab really make a difference to needle-phobic people?

I think 'jab' has very negative connotations for the many people who have needle phobia.
Inoculation is much more positive.
Journalists love to stir people's very real fears up in this way.

In some cases it is not correct - the immunisation is mostly done by an injection but also with a scratch or (for polio) on a sugar-cube. Or is the sugar now seen as almost as bad as the disease immunised against?

But I think jab is now taken as a synonym for any immunisation or vaccination.