Pop on a medical drama and it won’t be long before you hear the dishy protagonist yelling something along the lines of “give me 100 of epi, STAT”. That they want the medication administered quickly is usually easy enough to pick up, but why are they saying stat? Is it a word, and if so, where does it come from?

Like much medical jargon, doctors say stat because it comes from a Latin word: statim. The Latin means “immediately” or “at once”, and so when doctors say they want something stat, that is precisely what they mean.

While jargon can be confusing to those out of the loop, it can be useful in professional settings for helping you say something quicker and clearer. Hearing “stat” immediately communicates that the doctor is trying to say they need something done at once, or right now, without giving them the opportunity to screw up clearly stating the two words needed to communicate the point.

Latin has become a prominent feature of medical terminology across diagnoses, medications, and pathologies, particularly in English-language medical case reports. A 2018 paper that looked into the use of Latin in such journals concluded that there are some benefits to using the old language when it comes to universal understanding.

“The adequate use of Latin terms in medical case reports is an essential prerequisite of effective sharing of one’s clinical findings with fellow researchers from all over the world,” wrote the authors. “Therefore, it is highly important to draw students’ attention to Latin terms and expressions that are used in medical case reports most frequently. Hence, the analysis of structural, thematic, and contextual features of Latin terms in case reports should be an integral part of curricula at medical universities.” 

Furthermore, improving response time with short words like stat can be crucial in clinical settings where medical emergencies require prompt intervention to save lives. Plus, it sounds kinda cool.

And while we’re on phrases we never thought to question, ever wonder why people say “Roger!”?