ABSTRACT
Whether fatigue is called a symptom, a sign of disease, a side effect of treatment, or a medical or nursing diagnosis, its manifestation and description is dependent on cultural and linguistic features. In the English and French language, the word ‘‘fatigue’’ is being used to express feelings of extreme, unusual tiredness. In some countries, the word fatigue does not even exist and it seems to be replaced by the words ‘‘extreme tiredness’’ and by ‘‘general exhaustion.’’ Italian speaking individuals use the word ‘‘stanchezza’’ (tiredness) and the German speaking population also simply uses the word ‘‘Mu¨digkeit’’ (tiredness). The Latin word ‘‘fatigatio’’ is being translated in German with ‘‘general exhaustion’’ (allgemeine Erscho¨pfung) (1). The linguistic differences, however, reveal the complexity of the word, which not only represents a semantic problem in different languages and cultures but also raises questions of understanding and interpretation of the phenomenon. Surprisingly, the word fatigue is not only used in the context of medicine or psychology, it is also widely used in the technical area of engineering. Material can become fatigued and eventually break down. A similar technical use is seen in medicine, for example, a fatigue-fracture is a breakdown of bone tissue after exertion (2).
