Professional Words

I was talking to a friend about doing some pulpit supply over the summer. I forget that we often use words that are very familiar in one profession but completely unknown in another.
She thought that I was saying that I would be travelling around selling pulpits to churches over the summer. Logical assumption and I'm open to new ideas :)


Which reminds me of a story from C. In medical circles an "MI" is a myocardial infarct - that is a heart attack. In policing circles an "MI" is an mentally insane/imbalanced person. These terms are used so commonly that they just come out without remembering that they are professional lingo that not everyone knows.
Down at the Coroner's Office a woman came to the front desk who was obviously not mentally well wanting to check to see if she was dead. A person involved with policing went to one of the docs in the office hoping to find someone who could figure out what to do with this woman as she obviously needed help. So he said "Hey, I've got an MI down at the front desk can you help me". The coroner heard - "Hey, I've got a heart attack down at the front desk" as he explained later, "I haven't treated a live patient in ages!"