The origin of "Saturday night palsy"?
THE TERM Saturday night palsy has become synonymous with radial nerve compression in the arm resulting from direct pressure against a firm
object. It typically follows deep sleep on the arm, often after
alcohol intoxication. The commonly accepted origin of the phrase is
the association of Saturday night with carousing. We offer an
alternate explanation: we think that the term Saturday night palsy was introduced mistakenly as a simplification of saturnine palsy (much
like the way the word palsy was shortened from paralysis). Saturnine
palsy, which is a relatively common complication of lead poisoning,
has the same clinical presentation of radial nerve compression, and
Saturday night palsy even sounds like saturnine palsy. Moreover,
Saturday, lead, carousing, and alcohol are associated with each other
through their connection to Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture,
which encourages the association of the two syndromes with one
another.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12188953/
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