''Pschyrembel'' most commonly refers to a popular medical dictionary in German, the ''Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary (Pschyrembel Klinisches Wörterbuch)''.

''Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary''

The ''Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary'' alphabetically lists and explains all common/important medical words. Historically, the predecessor of this work was the ', by Otto Dornblüth, M.D., published in 1894 by Veit & Comp. publishers, Leipzig, Germany. This publisher later merged with four other publishers to become

Walter de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

publishers, Berlin, Germany (often abbreviated to ''de Gruyter''). This preceding work was thoroughly revised by Willibald Pschyrembel, M.D. (1901–1987), a professor of medicine, in Berlin, Germany. Willibald Pschyrembel was the sole editor of this dictionary from 1931 until 1982. The medical dictionary became very popular with physicians, medical personnel and medical students in the three German speaking countries. It simply became known as the ''Pschyrembel''. De Gruyter has been publishing the Pschyrembel ever since. The current edition is the 269th edition, published in June 2023.

A curiosity in the ''Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary''

The current edition – as well as many older editions – has the entry '' stone louse''. The text in this entry is most serious. For example, the Latin name of this

louse Louse (: lice) is the common name for any member of the infraorder Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera was previously recognized as an order (biology), order, until a 2021 genetic stud ...

is specified as ''Petrophaga lorioti'', and the mode of

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

is described. However, the stone louse is only a fictitious animal created by the German satirical comedian Loriot to parody nature documentaries, and included in the Pschyrembel as a copyright trap, because no genuine medical dictionary (by a different publisher) would include it unless it had been plagiarized. This humorous entry has become so popular in Germany that many Germans who are not connected to medicine professionally still know of the existence of the Pschyrembel because of this entertaining entry."Handbuch für Hypochonder (zur 261. Auflage des Pschyrembel)" by Stefanie Schramm, ''

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

''. 20 September 2007. Nr. 39.

Pschyrembel line of products

From a commercial point of view, ''Pschyrembel'' not only refers to the popular ''Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary'', but is the trade name for a series medical reference works published by de Gruyter. Pschyrembel-tomb

On the one hand, there is not only the printed version of the dictionary, but also an online version, a PDA version, a pocket PC version and an Apple app version. On the other hand, de Gruyter offers further products under the trade name Pschyrembel. These include, for example, a dictionary for nursing sciences and a dictionary for diabetelogy.

References

External links

*Pschyrembel Online: http://www.pschyrembel.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Pschyrembel Klinisches Worterbuch Medical dictionaries Online dictionaries