Introduction
to Medical Terminology
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What is Medical Terminology?
Medical terminology refers to the
words and phrases which have been developed to describe the
procedures, medications, instruments, anatomical structures,
etc. used in the field of medicine. It is, in a very real
sense, the language of medicine.
Medical terminology has a long
and rich history. Most medical terms derive from Latin or
Greek. So if at first medical terminology appears to be a
foreign language - well... that's because it is! But don't
despair. Like any language, the language of medicine adheres
to a set of fairly simple rules.
The Structure of Medical Terminology
It may seem like an impossible
task to commit the spelling and meaning of 100,000 different
medical terms to memory - and in fact, for most of us it is.
Fortunately, it is not necessary. The fact is that most seemingly
complex medical terms are simply combinations of much smaller
subsets of word parts. This is a critically important concept
to understand with medical terminology.
It is not unreasonable to expect
to memorize several hundred medical prefixes, medical suffixes
and medical root words in a relatively short period of time.
Then, once these word parts are learned, they can be combined
to form literally thousands of complex medical terms.
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How are Medical Terms Constructed?
Most medical terms consist of one
or more parts. These word parts may include one or more of
the following:
- Root Words
- Prefixes
- Suffixes
- Combining Vowels
To help you better understand how
this works, let's look at an example.
Consider the word cholecystectomy.
At first glance, this word seems quite complex. Cholecystectomy,
which means excision (removal) of the gall bladder, is really
a combination of four different word parts. Let's break it
down into its sub parts and see if we can figure out why it
means what it means.
chol - e - cyst - ectomy
chol is a root word meaning bile or gall
e is a combining vowel (described in more detail below)
cyst is another root word meaning bladder
ectomy is a suffix which translates to excision
or surgical removal.
Therefore, we can see that cholecystectomy
is a combination of words which translate to mean surgical
removal of the gall bladder.
Each of these word parts will be
seen over and over in medical language. For example, the suffix
ectomy is seen in such common terms as tonsillectomy
(removal of the tonsils) and appendectomy (removal of the
appendix). It is not hard to see that as you begin to commit
these sub-terms to memory, you will be able to decipher more
complex terms because you will recognize and understand their
component parts.
Medical terms always contain at
least one root word. And as we saw with cholecystectomy, they
may have more than one root word. The root is the part of
the word that comprises the primary meaning of the term. In
the example of tonsillectomy, the root word is tonsil. The
suffix is ectomy. The root word tonsil is capable of
standing alone. The suffix ectomy, (meaning surgical
removal) requires the root word tonsil to confer relevance.
Prefixes and suffixes cannot stand alone. Medical terms may
have, but are not required to have, a prefix and/or a suffix.
Combining Vowels
Combining vowels are sometimes
used to create a more fluid transition between word parts
and to make medical terms easier to pronounce. For example,
the term splenomegaly means enlargement of the spleen. It
is a combination of the root word splen meaning spleen,
and the suffix megaly meaning enlargement. The "O"
which follow the root word splen is a combining vowel
which simply makes the word flow better.
The vowel used most often to combine
medical words is "O", but other vowels are also sometimes
used. It should be noted that combining vowels may be used
between two root words, or between a root word and a suffix,
but they are never used between prefixes and root words.
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