GENERAL IDEA, WORD FORMATION, GREEK SUFFIXES AND PREFIXES

Latin is considered an international language from the point of view of medical terminology. It is used to study clinical diseases such as physical symptoms , disturbances or changes . In this we are going to look  at few examples of clinical terminologies. There is hardly any other aspect of medicine that is so discouraging for the beginning student as medical terminology. Although medical terms have been drawn from many languages, a large majority are from Greek and Latin. Some familiarity with the meaning of the most frequently used roots, prefixes, and suffixes will clarify the whole field. With a little study, it will be found that the long and formidable sounding medical terms are a combination of words, which describe parts of the body, a function, or a condition. The basic terms occur repeatedly in various combinations. A knowledge of the meaning of the roots, prefixes, and suffixes enables the student to analyse the medical terms into component parts. This is of the greatest aid in learning to understand the vocabulary of medicine. Some names of diseases given by the ancients and still used to-day are, in many instances, simply descriptions of the outstanding symptoms; for example, hydro-phobia-fear of water-for rabies, because the inability to drink is an early, characteristic sign of the disease.