PART Ⅰ GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Chapter 1.Introduction to Medical Terminology
Medicine is a science of human body. Medical professionals use medical language for efficient communication. Medical terminology, which is the jargon of medicine, involves a special group of vocabulary used to describe the human body, body parts, and associated processes, and clinical conditions.
Formation of Medical Terms
Medical terms are formed mainly based on Greek and Latin words. Some of the medical terms are long and quite confusing. However most of the medical terms can be broken into different parts which make more sense. Gastroenteritis, for example, can be divided into “gastr-”, which means the stomach; “enter-”, which means the intestine, and “-itis”, which means inf.lammation. Thus gastroenteritis refers to inf.lammation of the stomach and intestine.
Medical terms have three components: word roots, prefixes and suffixes. Different parts of the word are connected by a combining vowel (usually o, sometimes e, i, u, and sometimes omitted) to form a medical term. For example, the word peri-oste-o-tomy is formed by a word root (oste-), a prefix (peri-), a combining vowel (o), and a suffix (-tomy) (Fig.1-1).
Fig.1-1 Components of medical terms
Word Roots
Word roots are the fundamental parts of medical terms. A word root gives the basic meaning of a medical term. Because of the origin of word roots, some medical terms may look different but mean the same. For example, both epinephrine and adrenaline refer to the same hormone secreted from a gland situated above the kidney. These two words contain a root meaning the kidney. Epinephrine has a Greek root “nephr” while adrenaline comes from a Latin root “ren”.
Prefixes
Prefixes are the parts of a word attached before a word root. A prefix functions to modify a word root without changing the central meaning of it. It may refer to size, shape, color, direction, position, amount, etc. For instance, intercostal means between the ribs while infracostal means below the ribs.
Suffixes
Suffixes are word endings. A suffix is the part of a word added to the end of a word root. Just like a prefix, a suffix functions to modify the word root. It may refer to an instrument (e.g., -scope), a test (e.g., -metry), a procedure (e.g., -tomy), or a clinical problem (e.g., -oma, meaning a tumor). A suffix can be used to change the form of a word from a noun, for instant, to an adjective, e.g., muscle to muscular.
Commonly Used Pref ixes and Suff ixes in Medicine
Prefixes
Prefix Meaning Example
a- without 無，沒有 asepsis 無菌處理法
an- anesthesia 麻醉
ab- away from 遠離 abnormal 異常
Prefix Meaning Example
ante- before, in front of 在……前 antecubital 肘前的
anti- against 反，對抗 antibody 抗體
auto- self 自我的 autonomic 自動的
bi- two 二 bilateral 雙側(cè)的
de- remove 去掉 dehydration 脫水
di- two 二 dioxide 二氧化物
dis- apart or separation 分離 dislocation 脫臼，脫位
dys- painful, diff icult 痛 dysuria 尿痛
endo- inside, inner 內(nèi)部的 endocrine 內(nèi)分泌
erythro- red 紅色的 erythrocyte 紅細胞
ex- away from, outside 離開，外部的 exogenous 外源的
ex- out of 去掉 excision 切除
extra- outside, beyond 在……之外 extracellular 細胞外的
hemi- half 半個 hemisphere 半球
hyper- excessive, above 超過，在……之上 hyperglycemia 高血糖
hypo- under 低于，在……之下 hypodermic 皮下的
in- not 不，否 indigestion 消化不良
inter- between 在……之間 intercostal 肋間的
intra- within 在……之內(nèi) intravenous 靜脈內(nèi)的
leuc/o- white 白色的 leucocyte 白細胞
macr/o- large 巨大的 macrophage 巨噬細胞
micr/o small 小的 microbiology 微生物
mono- one 單，一 monocellular 單細胞的
multi- many 很多 multilateral 多邊的
poly- many 很多的 polyuria 多尿的
post- behind, after 在……后面 postocular 眼球后的
pre- before (time) 時間/位置之前的 premature 未成熟的
Prefix Meaning Example
re- again 再 repolarization 復極
semi- half 半 semipermeable 半透的
sub- under 下面的 subcutaneous 皮下的
tri- three 三 tricuspid 三尖（瓣）的
Suffixes
Suffix Meaning Example
-algia pain 痛 arthralgia 關節(jié)痛
-ase enzyme 酶 protease 蛋白酶
-crine to secrete 分泌 endocrine 內(nèi)分泌 -cyte cell細胞 erythrocyte 紅細胞 -dynia pain 痛 gastrodynia 胃痛 -ectomy excision 切除 appendectomy 闌尾切除術 -emia