医学专业英语课本.docVIP

Chapter 1 Human Body as a Whole Medical Terminology① I . Introduction How many medical words are there in a medium-sized medical dictionary? The answer is around 100, 000, which is only a conservative estimate. Moreover, like the jargon② in all forward-moving fields, the number is expanding so constantly and quickly that it defies any memorization! There are tools, however, that can aid in learning and remembering medical terms and even help in making informed guesses as to the meaning of unfamiliar words. Furthermore, their numbers are limited, about 400 to 500 or so (the most active ones) , but the combinations derived from them are enormous. So, to learn how to use these tools is much more efficient and meaningful than to try to memorize every medical term. Most medical terms are based on Greek and Latin words, which are consistent and uniform throughout many different areas. The tools you are going to learn to use are these Greek and Latin parts of words, which are called the root, prefix, suffix, combining vowels and combining forms. ● The root is the foundation of the word and all medical terms have one or more roots. ● The prefix is the beginning of the word. Not all medical terms contain prefixes, but the prefix can have an important influence on meaning. ● The suffix is the ending of the word and all medical terms have a suffix. ● The combining vowel③ is the vowel that links the root to the suffix or the root to another root. ① the special words or terms used in a science, art, business etc. ② the language of a special group or profession. ③ It takes the form of o for most of the time and occasionally I as in the words centimeter, millimeter, etc.  ● The combining form is the combination of the root and the combining vowel. Combining form For example, consider the word: endo / crin / o / logy prefix root suffix combing vowel endo is the prefix, meaning within/inner. crin is the roo