Transcript What is Medical Terminology?

What is Medical
Terminology?
Why learn Medical
Terminology?
• Medical terms convey the greatest amount
of information with the least confusion and
most precision.
• The foundation of medical terms is Greek
and Latin
• It is impossible to learn all medical terms, but
it is possible to figure out their meaning
through learning basic word parts.
Etymology
• Etymology: The science of the origin and
development of words
• Indicates the origin and
• historical development of
a term
• Helps decipher words with
Latin and Greek origins
Types of Med Terms
• Eponyms
o Words named after
people
o EX: Parkinson’s disease;
named after English
physician Dr. James
Parkinson
• Acronyms
o Modern language terms
that stand for longer
phrases
o EX: HIV, SIDS
• Abbreviations
o Shortened forms of words
o Many common
abbreviations, but ach
medical facility has their
own list of approved
medical terms
Basic Word Parts: Roots
• The glue that holds all medical terms together
• Main part/foundation of the word
• A combining vowel, usually an “o” or an “I” joins the
root with a prefix, suffix or another root.
Basic Word Parts:
Combining vowels
• Vowels that bridge word roots with another root,
prefix or suffix. Are not used if the word root or suffix
begins with a vowel.
• EX: Encephal(o) (root meaning brain)
o encephalitis
• Itis means: inflammation of
• Since itis starts with an “I” a combining vowel is not needed
o Encephalogram
• “gram” is a suffix meaning tracing or record; -gram does not start with
a vowel so it needs the combing vowel “o”
Basic Word Parts: Prefixes
• Appear at the beginning of words
• Tell “how, why, where, when, how much, how
many, position, direction, time or status”
• Give us a clue of what to expect in a word’s
meaning
• Serve to further define the word root
Basic Word Parts: Suffixes
• Appear at the ends of words
• Tell us what’s happening with a specific body part
or system
• Entail what is wrong with patient or the procedure
used to diagnose or fix it
Combining Form
• The combination of a word root with the combining
vowel
• Cardi/o/gram; underlined is combing
form
Analysis
• Learning to divide words into basic elements will
help you to interpret them.
o Basic elements: roots, suffixes, prefixes, combining vowels
GASTR/O/ENTER/O/LOGY
Root
root
suffix
combining vowels
Gastroenterology = the study of the
intestines and stomach
Rules to remember
• Read the meaning of medical terms from the suffix
back to the first part of the word
• Drop the combining vowel (usually o) before a suffix
beginning with a vowel
o Gastric not gastroic
• Retain the combining vowel between two roots in a
word
Spelling is ESSENTIAL
• Many words are pronounced alike but are spelled
differently and have entirely different meanings
• Examples
o Ileum-part of the small intestines
o Ilium-part of the pelvic or hip bone
Pronunciation is also important
• Words spelled correctly
but pronounced
incorrectly may be
misunderstood
• Examples
o Urethra (yoo-ree thruh) is the
urinary tract tube leading from
the urinary bladder to the
external surface
o Ureter (yoo-ree-ter) is one of
the two tubes leading from the
kidney to the urinary bladder