What's in a Name? Comments on the Dermatological Dictionary by Ledier, Rosenblum, and Carter

Abstract

Background: Any scientific discipline needs a sharply defined set of words for exact and reproducible communication. Surprisingly this has never been a strong point in dermatological science, especially as regards the living gross pathology of skin disease. Objective: This article briefly reviews the four editions of a dermatological dictionary of words and phrases and gives some thoughts on their usefulness. Conclusion: My conclusions are twofold: we need a new dictionary; at the very least, we need a reprinting of the fourth edition of A Dictionary of Dermatologic Terms by Carter.