Talk:Perspiration

Skip to table of contents

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Perspiration article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find medical sources: Source guidelines · PubMed · Cochrane · DOAJ · Gale · OpenMD · ScienceDirect · Springer · Trip · Wiley · TWL

Archives: 1

Physiology Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Physiology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Physiology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PhysiologyWikipedia:WikiProject PhysiologyTemplate:WikiProject PhysiologyPhysiology articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.
	This article has been classified as relating to the physiology of the brain, nerves and nervous system.

Medicine: Dermatology Mid‑importance

	Medicine portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Medicine, which recommends that medicine-related articles follow the Manual of Style for medicine-related articles and that biomedical information in any article use high-quality medical sources. Please visit the project page for details or ask questions at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine.MedicineWikipedia:WikiProject MedicineTemplate:WikiProject Medicinemedicine articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the Dermatology task force.

Ideal sources for Wikipedia's health content are defined in the guideline Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) and are typically review articles. Here are links to possibly useful sources of information about Perspiration.

PubMed provides review articles from the past five years (limit to free review articles)
The TRIP database provides clinical publications about evidence-based medicine.
Other potential sources include: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and CDC

Perspiration

Perspiration is the process. It is equal with sweating. It's not a fluid as the article suggests. Aminabzz (talk) 21:49, 21 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 21 September 2024

It has been proposed in this section that Perspiration be renamed and moved to Sweat.

A bot will list this discussion on the requested moves current discussions subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the closing instructions). Please base arguments on article title policy, and keep discussion succinct and civil.

Please use {{subst:requested move}}. Do not use {{requested move/dated}} directly.

Links: current log • target log • direct move

Perspiration → Sweat – WP:COMMONNAME, in line with sweat gland and night sweats –Tobias (talk) 12:56, 18 September 2024 (UTC) This is a contested technical request (permalink). – robertsky (talk) 08:01, 21 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Tobiasi0 The difference is that the other two examples are never referred to as Perspiration glands (the less colloquial term would be sudoriparous glands) or Night perspiration (the less colloquial term would be nocturnal hyperhidrosis). Perspiration is more precise as "sweat" can refer to any process by which an object (not just a mammal) oozes or exudes moisture. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:49, 18 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Sweating and perspiration refer to the same process, as mentioned in the lead. There's no significant difference between the terms—'sweat' refers specifically to the fluid secreted by any sweat gland, just as 'perspiration' does. The main distinction is that 'perspiration' is less commonly used. In fact, there is no difference between the two terms except the context they are used in (1,2,3). –Tobias (talk) 17:00, 18 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Tobiasi0 I still think this needs further discussion as it relates to WP:MEDTITLE. Feel free to open a discussion by clicking the "discuss" link in your request above, and make sure to notify Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:25, 19 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note: WikiProject Medicine has been notified of this discussion. – robertsky (talk) 08:02, 21 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I saw the note at WT:MED. I somewhat prefer the current name, as I think it has a more formal, encyclopedic tone. Also, it's not clear to me whether this article ought to be about "the fluid" or about "the process of excreting the fluid". "Perspiration" works for both, but with the proposed name, it would have to be either sweat (the wet stuff itself, as a collection of water and some other chemicals) or sweating (the process of making the wet stuff; Diaphoresis). As this article currently covers both (and that seems fine to me), then having a name that covers both in the same grammatical form seems convenient. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:17, 21 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The issue is that choosing a name solely based on its formal phonetic qualities to sound fancy to a layperson is neither purposeful nor encyclopedic. We have other guidelines like WP:COMMONNAME or WP:MEDTITLE, which lead to titles like 'sleepwalking' instead of 'somnambulism', 'fever' instead of 'pyrexia', and, in this context, 'sweat gland' instead of 'sudoriparous gland'. Additionally, 'sweat' makes the topic more accessable, as it's used in both everyday language and medical terminology, thus satisfying both of the previously mentioned guidelines.

Furthermore, we're not dealing with purely colloquial expression like 'poop' to refer to feces or 'tummy' for abdomen. 'Sweat' is a term that's also used in scientific contexts, as I mentioned earlier, and it's by far the most commonly used term for this subject.

As for the core topic of the article, it may need rewriting anyway, as the process of diaphoresis and the fluid 'sweat' are mixed somewhat randomly throughout the text. It would be much clearer to differentiate between the fluid and the process, rather than avoiding the issue by using a term that is imprecise for both. In this case, 'perspiration' is actually quite vague. I believe focusing on the fluid itself would be more effective, as the process of sweating depends on the fluid, much like we need saliva to start the process of salivation or tears for lacrimation, and not the other way around. –Tobias (talk) 13:45, 22 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Perspiration seems more encyclopedic. IntrepidContributor (talk) 13:58, 22 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
See above –Tobias (talk) 14:23, 22 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]