MG I 2011-2012, 1st semester

Module I: Medical Terminology, seminars 1+2

Quick Introduction to Medical Terminology

About 75% of medical English today is made of words originally from Latin/Greek. Also, the ossibilities of forming new words using Greek/Latin refi!es, roots and suffi!es are ractically endless. "his e! lains why much of a medical dictionary looks so strange and com licated. #t also e! lains why e$en the thickest dictionary to date may not tell you what you want to know. "his is why it%s better to figure out how medical language works rather than try to memori&e it by heart. First, a little bit o !istory 'any find the language of medicine to be fascinating. (nowing, understanding and a reciating the history behind the words can offer doctors $aluable insight into their rofessional language. )enrik *ulff is one such doctor and, in his recent a er The Language of Medicine +,ournal of the -oyal .ociety of 'edicine, /7/0112, .34753446, he ro$ides a clear and concise o$er$iew which # will resent here. *estern medicine has its roots in the )i ocratic writings dating back to the 5th and 2th centuries 78, and the same a lies to the language of western medicine. Ancient medical Greek was full of $i$id imagery, using words naming musical instruments, armour, tools, lants, animals etc. to refer to $arious anatomical structures. "he Greek era lasted e$en after the -oman con9uest, as -omans im orted Greek medicine +as most doctors ractising in the -oman Em ire were Greek6. At the beginning of the 3st century A:, Aulus 8ornelius 8elsus +fre9uently referred to a the Cicero of doctors due to his elo9uent and elegant use of Latin6 wrote De Medicina, an encyclo aedic o$er$iew of medical knowledge based on Greek sources. )e had a roblem though ; most Greek medical terms had no Latin e9ui$alents< "o this, he found three solutions which had a great im act on medical Latin later on. )e im orted some Greek terms as they were +e.g. pylorus6, he latini&ed others +e.g. stomachus6, and 5 most im ortantly 5 he translated many of those imaginati$e words from Greek to Latin +e.g. from the Greek kynodontes meaning dog teeth to the Latin dentes canini6. :uring the 'iddle Ages, many classical Greek medical te!ts were translated into Arabic, as Arab scholars became interested in medicine and then made their own contributions to medical literature. "his is when words such as nucha +meaning na e, the back of the neck6 made their way into medical language. )owe$er, by -enaissance, all these Greek and Arabic te!ts were translated to Latin, which was the lingua franca of science at that time. "he Latin medical $ocabulary e! anded, but its essential features remained the same. "he last notable medical te!t to be written in Latin a eared in 3410 and some doctors continued to write their notes in Latin until 345=. After this, Latin ga$e way to the national medical languages +mi!es of ordinary words and medical terms6 ; medical English, medical >rench, medical German, medical #talian etc. "hey all had a common legacy from the Latin era, which they used differently? - Germanic languages ke t Latin words as such +e.g. nervus musculocutaneus6. - -omance languages @naturali&ed@ them +e.g. le nerf musculo-cutane in >rench or nervo musculocutaneo in #talian6. - 7ecause English is a Germanic language with half of its $ocabulary of -omance origin, medical English tends to a ly its grammar rules to @naturali&ed@ words +e.g. musculocutaneous nerve6. "he e!am les abo$e illustrate a general attern which has, of course, many e!ce tions? - English, too, acce ts direct loans from Latin +e.g. diabetes mellitus6 - German, too, naturali&es Latin words +e.g. Coronararterien6.

*ith the rogress of medicine, new conce ts a eared which had to be gi$en new names by medical scientists still trained in a classical way. Again, Greek ro$ided a rich source of ossible combinations +also because it allows com osite words more than Latin does6 ; nephrectomy, ophthalmoscopy etc. +which in Latin would ha$e been more com licated 5 excisio renis, inspectio oculorum6. "his also e! lains how many Greek refi!es and suffi!es are more fre9uently used in combinations than their Latin e9ui$alents +e.g. the Greek refi! hyper5 is used more often than the Latin super5, although they both mean the same thing6. .ome of these national medical languages became $ehicles for international communication in medicine. "oday we are in the era of medical English, which resembles that of medical Latin from a few centuries ago? - 'edical English is used by all the influential medical Aournals and in international conferences - Bew medical terms are often com osed or borrowed from English ; e.g. bypass, screening, scanning. - Bon5English5s eaking medical communities can either ado t them as such +e.g. bypass in German, -omanian6, naturali&e them +e.g. skanne in :utch for to scan6 or translate them +e.g. pontage for by ass in >rench6 Cne source of difficulty and confusion is caused by the many English acronyms +e.g. A D!, CT, M" etc.6. *hile A D!, for e!am le, is widely acce ted, the >rench use ! DA and -ussians !# D as corres onding acronyms. "earning medical terminology #t is not difficult to ac9uire a good working knowledge of medical English terminology. "he first ste in ac9uiring medical $ocabulary has been to understand a little bit of its history. Be!t, we will learn how to identify and analy&e these words 5 to break them down and then determine their meanings based on the meaning of the arts they are made of. "hanks to the imaginati$e ancient Greeks, many of the medical terms we use today +whether or not they were translated to Latin by 8elsus and others6 ha$e fun and interesting meanings? - musical instruments +e.g. tibia D flute6 - armour +e.g. thorax D breast late6 - tools +fibula D needle6 lants +uvea D gra e6 - animals +helix D snail6 and the list goes on. "he analysis of medical terms is a systematic breaking u of the words into their com onent arts 5 -CC". +."E'.6, E-E>#FE. and .G>>#FE.. #ord roots$stems are the sim le elements which constitute the basis on which words are formed. "hose used in medical terminology often indicate an organ or art of the body. >or e!am le, in the word @arthritis@ the basic term or root is @arth5@, from the Greek @arthron@ meaning Aoint. "he roots are modified by combining them with refi!es or suffi!es or both. @Arthritis@ is modified by adding the suffi! @5itis@ denoting @inflammation@. 7y lacing the refi! @ eri5@ before the word we get @ eriarthritis@, a term meaning inflammation of the tissues around + eri6 the Aoint. 'ost %re i&es ha$e a final $owel which is dro ed if the root which follows begins with a $owel, e.g. @hy o@ and @adrenia@ combine to form @hy adrenia@, meaning adrenal insufficiency. Erefi!es are the most fre9uently used elements in the formation of medical terms and usually consist of one or two syllables laced before a word to modify its meaning. 'ost refi!es mean something. 5 "he refi! @ ar5@ from the Greek @ ara@ means beyond or a art from, or other than$ Hou can combine it with the root @5enter@ from the Greek @enteron@, which means intestine. IEarenteralJ,

therefore is an adAecti$e meaning not %or other than& pertaining to the intestine and is commonly used to indicate the route of administration of thera eutic agents 5 BC" $ia the intestinal canal as when not taken orally, but by subcutaneous, intramuscular or intra$enous inAection. 'u i&es are added at the end of a word to roduce nouns, adAecti$es or $erbs. "rue suffi!es are abstract elements ser$ing a formati$e or inflectional function only. 5 >or instance in the word parenteral, the end syllable @5al@ denoting of or pertaining to, or belonging to. #n another e!am le, @ot5@ +from @otos@ 5the ear6 lus the suffi! @5ic@ gi$es us the adAecti$e @otic@. "he word @crystal@ +from crystallos6 lus the suffi! @5i&e@ roduces the $erb to @crystalli&e@. )owe$er, in medical terminology many endings are not abstract suffi!es but are in fact nouns or adAecti$es with meanings of their own, added to the root to form com ound words? 5 @otitis@, where @ot5@ means ear and @itis@ means inflammation +@otitis@ D inflammation of the ear6 5 @adenoma@, where @aden@ means gland and @oma@ means tumour +@adenoma@ D glandular tumour6. As a general rule, Greek roots are correctly used with Greek refi!es and suffi!es, and Latin roots with Latin refi!es and suffi!es. 5 A good e!am le is @hy o5@, a Greek word meaning under or below, which can combine with @5 dermic@ +from Greek @derma@ 5the skin6 to form the fre9uently used term @hy odermic@. 5 .imilarly, the Latin deri$ed word @subcutaneous@ is formed with the refi! @sub5@ +under6 and cutaneous +from @cutis@ 5the skin6. #t is the e9ui$alent of the Greek term @hy odermic@. 5 .ome @hybrids@ are in use, howe$erK a well5known e!am le is the noun @a endicitis@ which is made u of the Latin @a endi!@ and the Greek suffi! @5itis@. (onstructing and deconstructing meaning) "he most im ortant rule in correctly decoding the meaning of long and com licated medical terms made of Greek/Latin arts is to read the meaning backwards ; from right to left. Let%s illustrate with an e!am le? the word ELE8"-C8A-:#CG-A' is made of ELE8"-C L 8A-:#C L G-A'. An electrocardiogram is a @gram@, not a @cardio@ and not an @electro@. #t is a @gram@ +record6 of the @cardio@ +heart6%s @electroJ +electricity6M :o you see how # am constructing the meaning of the word from right to leftM "he same rule can be a lied when you want to form a medical term. *ith this sim le rule and a good medical glossary/dictionary, you can understand, remember and use correctly e$en the longest and most com licated medical terms. A ractical way to start ractising this rule is to select a few words which you are already familiar with. *ith a little bit of ractice and after memori&ing a relati$ely small list of roots/stems, refi!es and suffi!es, a basic $ocabulary of fre9uently used medical terms is ac9uired. 7uilding it u can be an interesting and fascinating acti$ity. 'ome sources o re*uent mistakes 'edical terminology has many sur rises u its slee$e, such as false friends. Etymologically, a word may mean something which makes no sense in relation to today%s meaning and use of that word? 5 #ancreas means all meat, but there is no muscle in this gland at all. 5 A'ygos means odd +impar in -omanian6, which makes the word hemia'ygos 9uite strange, as odd numbers are not di$isible by two, which is what hemi5 refers to. #n fact, the adAecti$e a'ygous means not being one of a pair. 'edical English today has 9uite a few words which reser$e not only their Greek/Latin forms in the singular, but also rules when it comes to forming the lural. "his may be a source of difficulties or mistakes

+both in s elling and ronunciation6? formula ( formulae, medium ( media, fungus ( fungi, index ( indices, genus ( genera, phenomenon ( phenomena, thesis ( theses, stigma ( stigmata, series ( series. 'edical homonyms +words with different s elling and meaning, but identical ronunciation6 may cause roblems, which is why it is so im ortant to always check s elling, ronunciation and meaning? 5 leum +a ortion of the colon6 $s ilium +a art of the el$ic bone6 5 "adical +e!treme or drastic6 $s radicle +a $essel%s smallest branch6. *ord arts, too, may be homonymous, such as the refi!es dys5 and dis5. "his means that, although they look similar and ha$e identical ronunciation, they mean different things? 5 Dys5 refers to difficult, im aired, not working ro erly, e.g. dysfunction 5 Dis5 refers to a art, undoing, re$ersal, remo$al, e.g. disarticulation. Another source of difficulty lies in words which may be ronounced in different ways, thus changing their meaning as well. "ake for e!am le the word tear, which means lacrim) when ronounced Nt i O?P and a rupe*sf+ia when ronounced Nt e OP. +ecommended reading .ome of the e!am les used abo$e are classical and many authors of medical terminology te!tbooks use them to illustrate the main oints regarding medical terminology. "he 'edical "erminology -esource Eack ro$ided by your teacher contains such te!tbooks, as well as dictionaries, scientific articles and other materials to hel you continue to learn on your own continuously, as you build your medical knowledge and skills. Also, the English'E:iator website +,,,)englis!mediator)com6 has a section on 'edical English with links to some $ery useful online medical dictionaries and not only.