Medical terminology is made up of terms that describe human anatomy and physiology (body organs, systems, and their functions), body locations, diseases, diagnostic imaging and laboratory testing, together with clinical procedures, surgeries, and diagnoses.
Why do we need medical terminology?
A medical term usually describes in one word a disease or condition that, under normal circumstances, would take several words to describe.
Building a medical vocabulary involves breaking down a word by identifying its prefix, suffix, and root word. The root word is the foundation or basic meaning of the word. It can appear with a prefix and suffix or between a prefix and suffix, as prefixes and suffixes never stand alone. They must be attached to a root word.
- Prefix: Appears at the beginning of a word and tells the how, why, where, when, how much, how many, position, direction, time, or status.
- Root word: Specifies the body part to which the term refers.
- Suffix: Appears at the end of a word and indicates a procedure, condition, or disease.
Each prefix, root, and suffix has its own meaning, so it’s your job to remember them and put the three meanings together into one greater word meaning.
Medical language is an entity unto itself and followed a historical development.
Common medical vocabulary used today includes terms built from Greek and Latin word parts, some of which were used by Hippocrates and Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago. That’s quite an extensive pedigree, and one that only continued to build as time flew by, right into the modern age.
One type of medical term is the eponym, a term named after the personal name of someone. An example would be Parkinson’s disease, named after the English physician Dr. James Parkinson.
With the great advancements in medicine throughout the 20th century, medical language changed with the times and continues to do so today. Some words are discarded or considered obsolete, whereas others are changed, and new words are continually added.
Now available in several formats including traditional print, CD-ROM, Web sites, databases, and even wall charts, medical dictionaries grow bigger with each new edition. Check out Chapter 24 for a list of great resources. The rapid increase in medical and scientific knowledge necessitates new medical vocabulary to describe it. Changes in medicine in the 20th century became apparent in the growing size of medical dictionaries. Knowledge about immunology, antibodies, allergies, and viruses was in the infancy stage in early editions of dictionaries.
Greek and Latin
You can thank the two founding fathers of medical terminology for getting the ball rolling: Hippocrates and Aristotle. Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine, was a student, teacher, and great physician. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and a physical scientist. He stressed observation and induction. His major studies were of comparative anatomy and physiology.
The Hippocratic Oath — an oath of professional behavior sworn by physicians beginning a medical career — is attributed to Hippocrates. The Greeks were the founders of modern medicine, but Latin is the basic source of medical terms. With origins in ancient Rome and thanks to good, old-fashioned conquest, Latin quickly made its way through the world, solidifying its rep as the language of choice for medicine and science.
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