Saying eye doctor in a conversation feels normal. Saying tooth doctor feels like listening to someone who had a bad disco elysium roll and they’re punching themselves in the face to get the words out.

        • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I think the ‘easier to say’ part is the key thing here. “Pee-dee-atrition” is a lot easier for most English speakers that “op-tha-mologist”. I think the “th” throws people off enough to just say “eye doc”

          • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            It’s even harder to spell than it is to say “ophthalmologist” What are the extra h and l doing there? I don’t know. Most people forget them. Another English word not really pronounced like it’s spelled. Trips me up every time I try to type it out. Optometrist, the non-MD eye doctor, much easier to say and spell.

          • Kalash@feddit.ch
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            1 year ago

            I don’t quite see it, but I’m used to saying opthamologist because of Tim Minchin and I’m not a native speaker. But seems plausible.

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Well you could just shorten it and call them a paedo.

        • fubo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          In the US at least, an optician is specifically a vendor of eyeglasses. The person who measures your vision and gives you the prescription is usually an optometrist. Neither of the above are physicians; whereas an ophthalmologist is a physician who treats eye diseases.

    • Kalash@feddit.ch
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      1 year ago

      The one that always bothered me is Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Arzt. Why is it Nasen? We only have one. It should either be Hälse-Nasen-Ohren Arzt or Hals-Nase-Ohren-Arzt.

      • ValiantDust@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        I assume it’s for the same reason you say Nasendusche, Nasenrücken or Nasenbluten but Halsschmerzen or Halstuch (though I’m not sure what’s the exact grammatical reason). It has nothing to do with the number of noses. I think it would be Augenarzt and not Augearzt even if we had only one eye.

      • Kalash@feddit.ch
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        1 year ago

        But that’s because you learned english and know it’s called a vet. Direct word-for-word translations are often supposed to be weird because that’s just not how it works.

    • jameseb@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Technically a general eye doctor would be an opthalmologist. An optician is someone who makes lenses. The person you see for an eye test at the opticians is an optometrist (someone who measures what strength lenses you need).

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Similarly, saying butt doctor doesn’t have the same ring to it as proctologist, but either way they’re checking for rings around Uranus.

    • Kalash@feddit.ch
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      1 year ago

      Even worse is child doctor. I’m thinking of a child dressed as a doctor, not a paediatrician.