concept
Anemia and stomach catarrh (as euphemisms for consumption)
consumption euphemism
also: малокровие, катар желудка
Sysoev's self-diagnoses of "anemia" and "catarrh of the stomach" are the vague, non-fatal-sounding labels a dying man reaches for instead of naming chakhotka (consumption/tuberculosis), whose classic symptoms -- persistent cough, exhaustion, night sweats, sunken cheeks -- he displays throughout the story.
Reading notes
- The Teacher §22 malokrovie
Sysoev's own diagnoses -- malokrovie (anemia, literally "lack of blood") and "catarrh of the stomach" -- are the story's central euphemisms: period laypeople commonly reached for such vague, treatable-sounding labels to avoid naming chakhotka (consumption/tuberculosis), whose wasting symptoms (persistent cough, exhaustion, sweating, sunken cheeks) Sysoev otherwise displays throughout the story.
- The Teacher §50 catarrh of the stomach
"Stomach catarrh" (катар желудка) was a vague, common self-diagnosis of the period, used here by Sysoev to reassign the source of his persistent cough away from his lungs -- part of the story's portrait of a dying man's self-deception.
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