"Ok... So... I'm a dog..."

[Wayne]

I'm sitting here at this very moment pondering the Pavlovian response of "bless you"...

I don't consider myself in anyway religious (by man-defined standards anyway) but in my office regularly and loudly proclaim "bless you" as an apparent, instantaneous Pavlovian response to anyone's sneeze...

Whyzzat...?

 

[ilwrath]

Heh... I think it has become less of a religious thing, and more of just etiquette. Much like acknowledging the person walking the other way in the hallway with a nod or short greeting as you pass. Over the course of time, it has become expected you'd acknowledge someone's sneeze.

Of course, why we must acknowledge sneezes, but not coughs or other involuntary actions... Maybe it does go back to the religious history, after all...

 

[Glaucus]

I kinda figured it was to drive away evil spirits that may cause you harm, health wise. Turns out I was right.

Why do we say 'bless you' or 'gesundheit' when people sneeze?

The phrase "God bless you" is attributed to Pope Gregory the Great, who uttered it in the sixth century during a bubonic plague epidemic (sneezing is an obvious symptom of one form of the plague).

Now that's more specific and a lot more interesting. It explains why we bless people when they sneeze and not cough.

 

[Wayne]

I got the historical thing. It's the trained Pavlovian response issue that's tripping me up..

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Woof.

 

[Glaucus]

That's just cultural conditioning. There's many more examples of that.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Other things you could say.

We've already done gesundheit but there's also (depending on volume and incidental details):

Salud (sah-lood)
Out demons, out!
That better be allergies.
Elbow, dammit!
D'ya get any on ya?
Incoming
Hit the deck.
Holy Sh!t
You OK?
Did your brains come out?
MEDIC!!!!
Go home.
May a supernatural being enhance your well-being in non specific ways by non physical methods.

And if you want to stay with something religious wiki tells me Mongolians say Burkhan örshöö which means "May God forgive you". I might try that one, along with "May God have mercy on your wretched soul" (said while smiling warmly).