Do "my cold is not over yet" and "I am not over my cold yet" mean roughly the same?

Question

It seems that dictionaries suggest using this structure: "somebody + to be / get + over + an illness".

For example, "I am not over my cold yet".

Can we say "my cold is not over yet", and is it correct to say so?

Answer 1

Yes. They are slightly different uses of the word over, but idiomatically your two sentences mean the same thing.

my cold is not over yet.

Here, "over" means completed, finished, like we might say "the game is over".

I am not over my cold yet.

Here, "over" means "recovered from", like we might say "I'm over my breakup".

It is very similar usage to:

You should not do that in any circumstance.

You should in no circumstances do that.