Nerves Flashcards
myelo
spinal cord,bone marrow
This root comes from a Greek word meaning “the innermost part” and is used in medicine to refer to two different things—bone marrow and the spinal cord. But if you think about it, it makes sense, as both are in the innermost part of something else. Bone marrow is in the center of bones. The spinal cord is in the center of the spine.
cerebr/o, encephal/o
brain
The encephalo root comes from en (inside) and cephalus (head) and literally means “the stuff inside your head.”
cerebell/o
cerebellum
This word is just the word cerebrum (brain) plus a diminutive suffix. It means the “little brain.” It refers to the region of the brain that controls voluntary movements and looks somewhat like a little version of the whole brain.
lob/o
lobe
cephal/o
head
crani/o
head, skull
The term migraine comes from the word hemicranias, meaning “half the head.” It reflects the fact most migraines are localized on half the patient’s head.
mening/o, meningi/o
meninges (membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord)
neur/o
Neuron comes from a Greek word meaning “tendon” or “string.” In ancient times, when people first began examining brains, they thought neurons looked like string.
gangli/o
nerve bundle
According to Galen, a doctor in ancient Rome, the term ganglion means “knot” and could refer to anything gathered up into a ball, which is what Galen thought nerve tissue coming out of the brain looked like.
esthesi/o
feeling, sensation
Esthetics (also sometimes spelled aesthetics) is the study of art and philosophy as it pertains to beauty. What makes something beautiful? Can you measure beauty? Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder?
phas/o
speech
If a friend is talking too fast, perhaps he or she is stricken with the disease tachyphasia.
phren/o, psych/o
mind
In addition to the mind, phren/o can also refer to the diaphragm (as in the term phrenospasm, a fancy medical term for a hiccup). The reason comes from the ancient Greek view of the mind. Early on, the Greeks thought of the chest as the seat of emotion and reason. As that view changed and the location of the mind moved from the chest to the brain, this term for mind began to be applied to both areas of the body.
somn/o, somn/i, hypn/o
sleep
gnosi/o
know
suffix: -mania
excessive desire
Because of the commonly used psychological term manic-depressive, some people mistakenly assume that manic refers to a type of depression. “He doesn’t just have depression, he has manic depression.” On the contrary—it actually refers to the exact opposite state. Manic-depression is characterized by intense swings of emotion. At times, sufferers are extremely energetic (the manic state) and at other times, they are extremely sad (the depressed state). Because of these swings in mood, people with this condition are sometimes referred to as being bipolar, because their personality is always swinging from one extreme (pole) to the other.
-phobia
excessive fear or sensitivity
suffix: -paresis
slight or partial paralysis
Paresis comes from Greek, for “to let go” or “to slacken”; it is used in health care to refer not to complete loss of sensation or control but instead to a partial or isolated form of paralysis.
ton/o
muscle tone, tension, pressure
tax/o
arrangement, order, coordination
suffix: -plegia
paralysis
-asthenia
weakness,
the cat was diagnosed with a skin condition that causes the skin along the back to become loose and then harden into flat, winglike protrusions. The term for this is feline (cat) cutaneous (skin) asthenia (weakness).
