chest infection

This is the common colloquial term for an upper respiratory infection. It is not entirely accurate as the infection is in the lungs or respiratory tract. Λοίμωξη αναπνευστικού seems too technical for the thread title. How would I describe it in natural spoken Greek?

Don't forget Theseus that natural spoken Greek includes several words that are part of the everyday vocabulary of medicine (for when my GP in London forgets that I don't need to be told that a paediatrician is a children's doctor).
Chest infection is a bit too generic, to be honest. Here is a list of all the words that I can remember that describe various respiratory illnesses.
Βροχικά/ βρογχικά = some sort of generic infection of the bronchiae, never heard it from a doctor, often heard it from my grandmother
Ακροαστικά another mysterious infection that I heard from my grandmother, I think it's the noises one can hear an infected person make while breathing
Βρογχίτιδα
Πνευμονία (πλεμονία I used to say when I was little)
Βρογχοπνευμονία΄
Άσθμα
Εμφύσημα (we had a neighboutr who said επαθε φύσημα)
Πνευμονικό οίδημα (common cause of death for a lot of people)
Λαρυγγίτιδα
Φαρυγγίτιδα (as in θα πάθεις φαρυγγίτιδα αν δεν σταματήσεις να μιλάς, a phrase I used to hear a lot as a child, being very talkative)
Αμυγδαλίτιδα
Γρίππη
Συνάχι
Κρυολόγημα
And a lot of children used to have their κρεατάκια (adenoids) removed.

Theseus said:

... Λοίμωξη αναπνευστικού seems too technical for the thread title. How would I describe it in natural spoken Greek?

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«Έπαθε λοίμωξη (αναπνευστικού)». As SBE says, the technical term is transferred to the common language if that term does not really correspond to any previously used colloquial way of describing it or a new one hasn't been devised yet.

---

Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu - Huey "Piano" Smith


Johnny Rivers & Wrecking Crue

Jerry Lee Lewis

Thanks, SBE, for that invaluable & fascinating list &, 'Man, for your help too. What exactly does βράσιμο στο στήθος mean? I've come across that term as well. Is it the same as καούρα;
A further note to SBE. Ι found a note with ακροάστικα, δηλ. ενδεικτικά για πνευμονία ακροαστικά ευρήματα (ρόγχοι ή ήχοι βρογχικής αναπνοής), υγροί ρόγχοι, αναπνευστικός συριγμός, :)

Theseus said:

... What exactly does βράσιμο στο στήθος mean? I've come across that term as well. Is it the same as καούρα;

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A boiling, bubbling, even gurgling sound heard when breathing. Wheezing, more or less. Or in technical terms:

Theseus said:

(ρόγχοι ή ήχοι βρογχικής αναπνοής), υγροί ρόγχοι, αναπνευστικός συριγμός, :)

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Καούρα is chest burning.

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Aqualung - Jethro Tull


Snatch your rattling last breaths
With deep-sea-diver sounds
And the flowers bloom like madness in the spring

Καούρα is heartburn.

Thanks, both. I knew that καούρα meant heartburn & thought that βράσιμο στο στήθος might have the same meaning. I was wrong!:)

Note of course that βράσιμο is not a medical term, not a term used to describe symptoms in any semi-formal situation. I remember my grandmother commenting that there was βράσιμο when I had a cold, but the she would call the doctor and say that I had a σφύριγμα και ρόγχο when breathing. To which the cure was of course Vicks vaporub, covered with a piece of cloth to protect clothing, and a hot water bottle or steam inhalations. Or if all else failed, the threat of cupping (θα σου ρίξω βεντούζες).

I also remember Vicks vaporub or covering my head with a cloth while breathing in the steam from boiling water & Friar's Balsam. Where were the cups applied for σφύριγμα και ρόγχο; Thanks for all this information!

SBE said:

...To which the cure was of course Vicks vaporub, covered with a piece of cloth to protect clothing, and a hot water bottle or steam inhalations. Or if all else failed, the threat of cupping (θα σου ρίξω βεντούζες).

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Had them both, the cure -mildly unpleasant, but the easier breathing after that was certainly pleasing- and the threat as a cure, once, can't remember it though; must have been blocked from memory.

Cupping is a cure for every illness, Theseus. I think I had it once when I was very very young, but I am not sure. FFW to 2000 and I was seeing an Indian physiotherapist for back pain and she suggested I have wet cupping, which involved small incisions and bleeding. I said no. If my grandmother did not catch me, nobody else will.

Γεια σου, SBE, με τα ωραία σου....