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Medical Terminology 外国语与国际交流学院 许 瑾
The study of medical terminology is the study of the parts that make up medical words and the building of both a general vocabulary and a vocabulary for each of the body systems. Few linguistic concepts need be understood before you can analyze the terms themselves. Most medical words are made from a combination of the following elements:
Basic Elements of the Medical Words: • Base form • Combining Vowel • Prefix • Suffix
BASE is the part of a word that contains the most fundamental meaning of the word. sometimes called a root or a stem; capable of combining with another base or suffix to form a medial word that has meaning
When two bases are combined or a suffix is added to a base, if no vowel occurs at the junction of the two forms, a vowel called the COMBINING VOWEL is added. • O is the most commonly occurring combining vowel; • I is the second most common combining vowel; • We call a base with a combining vowel a combining form.
PREFIXES are placed before a word to alter the basic meaning of the word. • SUFFIXES appear at the end of the word and, in a sense, function like prefixes. • Suffixes, however, not only alter the meaning of a word, but they also determine the various word functions, such as part of speech or whether the word is singular or plural.
Exercise: • anemia • microbe • germicide • microscope • cardiovascular
A suffix is added to the end of a word base to change the meaning of the base or to make the base a noun, verb, adjective, and so forth. • In medical language there are two types of suffixes: simple and compound.
Simple suffixes are those suffixes that have nothing added to them.
Compound suffixes are usually formed by joining a base and a simple suffix. For instance, we can join the base LOG and the suffix Y to make the compound suffix LOGY, which means the act or process of studying.
Case Study for Exercise: • D.S., a 28-year-old woman, was treated for injuries sustained in a train derailment accident. During the course of her treatment, she was seen by several specialists. For pain in her knee and hip joints, she was referred to an orthopedist(整形外科专家). For migraine headaches and blurry vision, she consulted a neurologist. For pain on urination and occasional bloody urine, she saw a urologist. Later, for a persistent dry cough and problems resulting from a fractured nose, she was referred to an otorhinolaryngologist.
During her initial course of treatment, she had a CT scan of her abdomen and brain and an MRI of her hip and knee. Both imaging studies required her to lie motionless on her back for 45 minutes. • Several months after the accident, D.S. was still experiencing some discomfort, and she decided to investigate alternative therapies. She made an appointment with a naturist practitioner who specialized in homeopathy and herbal medicine.
Before her appointment, she browsed in the Nutra-Medica Shop, which carried nutritional supplements, vitamin and mineral products, homeopathic remedies, and herbal formulas. She planned to ask the therapist about some of the products that she saw there, which included remedies with the trade names Pneumogen, Arthogesia-Plus, Renovite, Nephrostat, and Hematone.
1. The –ist in the word neurologist is a A. prefix B. root C. suffix D. combining form 2. Endo- in endoscopic is a A. root B. suffix C. combining form D. prefix 3. D.S. needed plastic surgery on her nose to repair the postfracture deformity. This procedure is called a(n): A. septoscope B. rhinoplasty C. neurectomy D. rhinitis
4. Several of the radiological imaging studies required D.S. to lie on her back for 45 minutes. This position is referred to as: A. supine B. prone C. lithotomy D. lateral recumbent 5. The products Renovite and Nephrostat are named for their action on the: A. lung B. nerves C. liver D. kidney 6. The meaning of the roots in otorhinolaryngology is: -ot/o- for ___, -rhin- for ___, -laryng- for ___.
Forming Plurals • Many medical words have special plural forms based on the ending of the word.
Exercises: 1. Vertabra (bone of the spine) VER-te-bra 2. Ganglion (mass of the nerve tissue) GANG-lē-on 3. Omentum (abdominal membrane) ō-MEN-tum 4. Testis (male gonad) TES-tis 5. Lumen (central opening) LU-min 6. Matrix (background substance) MĀ-triks 7. Serum (liquid) SĒ-rum Vertebrae, ganglia, omenta, testes, lumina, matrices, sera
Pronunciation • Notes: Pronunciations may vary from country to country, even in different regions of the same country. Think how easy it is to distinguish a southern accent and one from the midwest or northeastern United States. The general rule is to include the most common pronunciation.
The word gynecology is usually pronounced with a hard g in the United States, but in many areas a soft g is used, as in jin-e-KOL-ō-jē. • Words pertaining to the cerebrum (largest part of the brain) may have an accent on different syllables. The adjective is usually pronounced with the accent on the second syllable (se-RE-bral), but in cerebrum (SER-e-brum) and cerebrospinal (ser-e-brō-SPĪ-nal), the accented syllable differs.
The name for the first part of the small intestine (duodenum) is often pronounced dū-ō-DĒ-num, although the pronunciation dū-O-de-num is also acceptable. • When extreme, some alternate pronunciations can sound like a foreign language. The work we pronounce as SKEL-e-tal is pronounced in some other English-speaking countries as ske-LE-tal.
Silent letters and Unusual pronunciations • A silent letter or unusual pronunciation can be a problem, especially if it appears at the start of a word.
Case Study • While walking home from the train station, M.A., a 72-year-old woman with osteoporosis, tripped over a broken curb and fell. In the emergency department, she was assessed for severe pain, swelling, and bruising of her left thigh. A radiograph showed a displaced left femoral neck fracture. M.A. was prepared for surgery and given a preoperative injection of an analgesic to relieve her pain.
Intraoperatively, she was given spinal anesthesia and positioned on an operating room table, with her left hip elevated on a small pillow, intravenous antibiotics were given before the incision. Her left hip was repaired with a bipolar hemiarthroplasty. Postoperative care included maintaining the left hip in abduction, blood and fluid replacement, physical therapy, and vigilance for development of avascular necrosis and possible dislocation.
