Saturday night palsy
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Introduced mistakenly as a simplification of saturnine palsy, a complication of lead poisoning which has a similar presentation.[1]
Folk etymology associates it with carousing and intoxication on Saturday nights, which causes the individual to fall asleep in unnatural positions, such as on a chair or bed with one arm hanging over the edge.
Noun[edit]
Saturday night palsy (uncountable)
- (medicine, informal) Paralysis due to radial nerve compression in the arm, resulting from direct pressure against a firm object.
Hyponyms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
radial nerve palsy
References[edit]
- ^ Spinner RJ, Poliakoff MB, Tiel RL (2002) “The origin of "Saturday night palsy"?”, in Neurosurgery, volume 51, number 3, pages 737–741