Medical students may find medical terminology daunting, because they do not understand its origins, which in many cases are rooted in Greek and Latin. We propose a simple way of classifying these terms, which we hope may prove enlightening and potentially useful. Aside from this, we hope that readers will find some of the etymologies (word origins) discussed to be diverting in and of themselves. Throughout, readers are invited to consult references 1 2 3 4 for the sources of etymologies, as well as Latin 5 and Greek 6 dictionaries. The interested reader is invited to consult an introductory text on medical etymology. 7 8
As well as making use of individual Greek or Latin words, medical terms are commonly formed from combinations of words (or, frequently, from a Greek or Latin stem followed by a Greek or Latin suffix (some of which are meaningful and some of which serve a purely grammatical purpose, such as making a noun out of an adjective)). Table 1 ⇓ demonstrates these possibilities of word formation.
Word formation strategies
Although this goes some way to explaining the mechanics of word formation, it does not explain what motivates the choice of terminology.
We suggest that a straightforward four way distinction exists that can cross categorise most, if not all, medical terms of classical origin. Terms are classified, firstly, according to whether they are based on structural or functional properties, and, secondly, according to whether they are literal or metaphorical. Of course, we can discover further subdivisions, but this first approximation will help to group together some expressions, the meanings of which share the same kind of logic.