Talk:Chronic (medical)

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Should addiction be added as another example of a chronic disease? Saaraleigh 18:11, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Or should addiction be added as an example of a genetic disease?

The section on the use of "chronic" metaphorically should be removed. The work "chronic" is from the Greek "chronos" meaning "time". The word now is defined as follows by Merriam-Websters.

"1 a: marked by long duration or frequent recurrence : not acute <chronic indigestion> <chronic experiments> b: suffering from a chronic disease <the special needs of chronic patients>2 a: always present or encountered; especially : constantly vexing, weakening, or troubling <chronic petty warfare> b: being such habitually <a chronic grumbler>"

As always, the first definition in a dictionary is the more specialized definition, but even it is not confined to illness (e.g., chronic experiments). The second defintion implies an incredibly generalized meaning.

"Chronic inflation" is using defintion 2a of the word chronic. Please delete the entire section. This has nothing to do with metaphor.