Lecture 2
Etymological Study of
Medical Terms
Etymology
Definition
 The
origin and historical development of a
linguistic form as shown by determining its
basic elements, earliest known use, and
changes in form and meaning, tracing its
transmission from one language to another,
identifying its cognates in other languages,
and reconstructing its ancestral form where
possible.
Medical Terminology - Applied
Definition
 The words or terms that make up the
language of medicine are referred to as
the terminology of the medical field.
 Like every other language, medical
terminology has changed over time, but
the majority of terms are based on Latin
or Greek words.
The Sources of Medical Terminology
 Native
terms
 Borrowed
 Coinage
terms
Sources of Medical Terms

Native: those that derive from Old
English
Old English (450AD-1100 AD)
Time: the fifth and sixth centuries AD,
Event: invasion of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from
northern Germany, Denmark and northern Holland
into the British Isles and began populating those
areas
Result: The invaders, known as the Anglo-Saxons,
pushed the original, Celtic-speaking inhabitants out
of what is now England into Scotland, Wales,
Cornwall, and Ireland, leaving behind a few Celtic
words. The language they spoke, Anglo-Saxon, was
mutually intelligible and at some point developed into
what we know as Old English.
Words evolved from old
English
Most medical words from old English
denote :
 Anatomic structures
 Organs
 Substances
 Basic concepts of human activities
Words evolved from old English
Without Semantical Changes








ankle
back
bladder
ear
eye
foot
gum
hair
 knee
 lip
 liver
 lung
 neck
 throat
 tongue
Words evolved from old English
Without Semantical Changes
Some words denoting
basic physical functions:
 breath
 swallow
 thirst
 yawn
 sleep
 heal
 health
Some words denoting
basic symptoms:
 ache
 choke
 deaf
 fever
 lame
 mad
 swell
 wound
Anatomic words
Words evolved from old English
With Semantical Changes
blood
 In O.E., spelt as blod
 perhaps originally meant “to swell,
gush, spurt” or ‘"that which bursts out”.
Anatomic words
Words evolved from old English
With Semantical Changes
chest
 chest – In O.E., cest
 meaning “box, coffer”.
 a medicine chest (药箱)
 The meaning was extended to “thorax” in
1530 and replaced breast, on the metaphor
that the ribs are a box for the organs.
Anatomic words
Words evolved from old English
With Semantical Changes
organ
 It was organe in O.E., and orgene in O.Fr.
(Old French), both meaning “musical
instrument”.
 Sense was narrowed in late M.E. to modern
musical instrument known by that name (风
琴).
Anatomic words
Words evolved from old
English
With Semantical Changes
organ
 Great Organ Works
 The meaning “functioning body part”
appeared in English in 1392.
Words evolved from old English
 Other
Examples:
whooping-cough
pertussis
pink eye
epidemic conjunctivitis
athlete’s foot
tinea pedis
Submedical Words
Word
General Meaning
arrest
base
carrier
complaint
complication
control
digest
failure
shock
Medical meaning
Examples
Sources of Medical Terms



Borrowed words, or loan-words: taken
from other languages
largely based upon Greek, Latin and
French vocabulary
German, Italian, Spanish and others
have contributed some words to medical
terminology.
Words originated from Greek
Great influence of long standing
and well established ancient
Greek civilization on western
culture
·Asklepios (Greek spelling)
/Aesculapius (Latin spelling)
埃斯科拉庇俄斯：the god of
medicine and healing
He had a stick with the snake
curled around it .

Words originated from Greek
(WHO) World Health Organization
Words originated from Greek
中国医师协会标志
Words originated from Greek
·Hippocrates: the father of
western medicine
a Greek physician born in 460 BC
on the island of Cos, Greece. He
became known as the founder of
medicine and was regarded as the
greatest physician of his time. He
based his medical practice on
observations and on the study of
the human body.
Words originated from Greek
acne
 It was borrowed from Gk. akme in
1570, meaning “(highest) point”. It
contains the base “ak-”, denoting
“sharp”.
 “青春痘” “痤疮” “粉刺”
Words originated from
Greek
diagnosis
 It was Greek diagnosis (a discerning,
distinguishing) used as a medical term in
English in 1681. The word was evolved
from diagignoskein composed of dia(apart) and gignoskein (to learn, to
discern).
Words originated from Greek
Other Examples:
(1) aden, anorexia, colon, coma, derma,
dyspeptic, glaucoma, glottis, larynx,
metastasis, necrosis, nephron,
paralysis, phalanx, pharynx, pneumonia,
psychology, rachis, soma, stenosis,
stoma, thorax,
— simple, fixed and precise
Achilles
iris
Iris
Words originated from Latin



The earliest influence of Latin language on
English may date back to Roman Empire.
With the expansion, the Romans brought
their language to other parts of the entire
Empire.
Greater influence was exerted after
Norman Conquest. As Norman invaders
spoke a language that derives from Ancient
Latin, borrowing from Latin was inevitable.
Words originated from Latin
aorta

Borrowed into English in 1578 from Middle
Latin aorta, the term was applied by
Aristotle to the great artery of the heart. It
literally meant “what is hung up.”
Words originated from Latin
bacteria

The plural form of Modern Latin of
bacterium, it comes into English in 1847.
The original Latin word is from Greek
bakterion (small staff), the diminutive（ 指
小词） of baktron (stick, rod). It is so called
because the first ones observed were rodshaped.
Words originated from Latin
cell

It is made from Latin cella (small room, hut),
related to Latin celare (to hide, conceal).
The earliest sense was for monastic rooms,
then prison rooms. It began to be used in
biology in the 17th century but not in
modern sense until 1845.
Words originated from Latin
Other
Examples:
acute, abscess, abdomen, apnea,
autopsy, bacterium, cancer, clinic,
cerebrum, cornea, cortex, dystrophy,
hydrophobia, inflame, medicine,
muscle, nausea, obstetrics, panacea,
pelvis, placebo, plexus, prognosis,
rabies, tumor, vertebra
Words originated from Latin
 The
changes of the endings:
(1) inflammation, inspection (-tio→ -tion)
(2) catarrh, fluid (-us)
(3) ligament, pigment, medicament
(-mentum → -ment)
(4) immunity, heredity, obesity (-itas → -ity)
(5) medicine (medicina), intestine
(intestinum)
Some interesting Examples:
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar → Caesarean Section
Some interesting Examples:
 Mercury →mercury
Mercury, also known as
quicksilver or
hydrargyrum, is a
chemical element with the
symbol Hg (Latinized
Greek: hydrargyrum, from
"hydr-" meaning watery or
runny and "argyros"
meaning silver) and
atomic number 80.
Mercury-god of commerce
Some interesting Examples:
Venus → venereal
Hygeia → hygiene
Panacea → panacea
Aesculapius and Hygeia
Words originated from
French


After the Norman Conquest, the conquerors
ruled the country for a long period of time
and left a deep influence on the English
language.
As French language itself is a modified form
of Latin, many of these borrowed words
ultimately come from Greek, since many
words form this language had passed into
Latin.
Words originated from
French

hospital
Borrowed in 1242 from Old French
hospital (hostel), it originally referred to
“shelter for the needy”. Its sense of
“institution for sick people” was first
recorded 1549. Hospitalize was recorded
from 1901.
Words originated from
French

faint (adj.)
Old French faint (soft, weak, sluggish),
which was derived from past participle of
faindre (avoid one's duty by pretending),
entered English in about 1300. Sense of
“weak, feeble” began to be used in
about1320.
Words originated from
French

Disease
It was evolved in about 1330 from Old
French desaise, made of des– (without,
away) and aise (ease). Sense of “sickness,
illness” was first recorded in 1393.
Words originated from French
 Other
examples:
ambulance, anatomy, antibiotics, artery,
benign, bruit, chronic, doctor, embolism,
jaundice, lavage, lymph, malaise,
massage, mortuary, palpitation,
pathology, prostate, rehabilitation,
surgeon,
Words originated from German



Starting from 19th century, German made
great progress in science and technology.
Such advances necessitate new vocabulary to
denote new findings, discoveries, concepts
and substances.
Some medical terms were first coined in
German and then introduced into English.
Words originated from
German

aspirin
It was coined in 1899 in German as a trademark
name either from Greek a– (without) and Latin
spiraea (ulmaria), the plant in whose flowers or
leaves the processed acid in the medicine is found
naturally.
Hence aspirin means “acetylo–salicylic acid
which is gained not from the Spiraea ulmaria(绣
线菊类的植物)(but in a chemical way)”.
Words originated from
German

Biology
The word was suggested from Greek bios (life)
and logia (study of) in 1802 by German
naturalist G. Reinhold Treviranus（特雷维拉努
斯） and introduced as a scientific term that
year in French by Lamarck(拉马克）. It was
borrowed in English in 1819.
Words originated from German
 Other
examples:
barbiturate, chemotherapy, chromosome,
gene, genome, leukemia, neuron,
psychoanalysis, schizophrenia,
testosterone
Words originated from Italian,
Spanish and Chinese
 From
Italian :
influenza, malaria, quarantine
 From Spanish:
mosquito, quinine
 From Chinese:
yin, yang, jing, qi, tui na (from Pinyin)
acupoint, acupressure,moxibustion (coinage)
Words originated from Direct
Coinage
Development in medical science
necessitates more words to describe
new findings, explains innovative
processes and denotes new
concepts .English has been enriched
with a large vocabulary of coinage,
embodying creativity and talents of all
human thinking.
Words from Direct Coinage

acupuncture
It was coined in 1684 from Latin acus
(needle) and English puncture, first used
as noun meaning “pricking with a needle”.
The verb was first recorded 1972.
Words from Direct Coinage

antacid
It was coined in 1732 from anti(against) and acid.
Words from Direct Coinage
It means “medical technician”,
back-formation from paramedical (related to
medicine in an auxiliary capacity) (1921),
from para- + medical. The meaning “medical
corpsman who parachutes” is 1951 from
para(chute) + medic.
 paramedic:
Causes of Coinage
1. Intersection and differentiation of
medical science:
cytopathology
nanomedicine
microbial engineering
immunotoxicology
Causes of Coinage
2. New findings in the medical field:
(1) penicillin, chemotherapy, streptomycin,
electrocardiogram(ECG), reproductive
cloning, transsexual operation, artificial heart
pasteurization
(2) AIDS, SARS, avian flu (bird flu),
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease,
karoshi (death from overwork), subhealth,
ICU syndrome, affluenza (civil disease),
Causes of Coinage
(3) Escherichia coli, rickettsia, Shigella,
Salmonella
(4)fallopian tube, Eustachian tube, Bowman’s
gland
(5)Mediterranean anemia, tularemia (rabbit
fever), Keshan disease
Causes of Coinage
3. Raised awareness of health care:
Medicare, Medicaid, aerobic exercise, organic
food, skimmed milk, vegetarian, internet
addiction, over-the-counter (OTC) drug,
balanced diet, health-care food
4. Renewal of medical ethical views:
bioethics, hospice care, QOL (quality of life),
euthanasia (mercy killing) , dignified death,
brain death, vegetative state, informed consent