Medical Langauge Questions Flashcards
Medical language allows health care professionals to
- be clear
- allow health care providers to communicate quickly
- bring comfort to patients
Medical language reassures patients that
health care professionals know what is going on and are in control
eponym
a word formed by including the name of the person who discovered or invented whatever is being described
acronyms
a word made up of the first letters of each of the words that make up a phrase
the foundations of western medicine were founded in
Ancient Greece and Rome
the first people to systematically study the human body and develop theories about health and disease were the
ancient greeks
who is considered to be the father of western medicine
hippocrates
don’t think of medical language as words to be memorized, instead they are sentences to be
translated
Root
foundation or subject of the term
cardi/o , derm/o , my/o are all considered ?
roots
suffix
ending that gives essential meaning to the term
-algia , -cyte , -ectomy are all considered?
suffixes
prefix
added to the beginning of a term when needed to further modify the root
anti- , multi-, hyper- are all considered ?
prefixes
diminutive
smaller version
combining vowel
the final letter occurring in a root ( ex. cardi/o , the o is the combining vowel )
combining form
a combination of a root word with a combining vowel ( ex. cardio )
when to use a combining vowel
- to join a root to any suffix beginning with a consonant
- to join to roots together
- to join two roots together even when the second root begins with a vowel
consonant
not a vowel
vowel
a , e , I , o or u
don’t use a combining vowel when
joining a root to a suffix that begins with a vowel
you can usually figure out the definition of a term by interpreting the
suffix first , then the prefix (if there is one) , and then the root
