Medical Terminology by Branch für PC und Mac

1. Medical terminology often uses words created using prefixes and suffixes in Latin and Ancient Greek.

2. Medical terminology has quite regular morphology, the same prefixes and suffixes are used to add meanings to different roots.

3. Prefixes do not normally require further modification to be added to a word root because the prefix normally ends in a vowel or vowel sound, although in some cases they may assimilate slightly and an in- may change to im- or syn- to sym-.

4. Medical roots generally go together according to language: Greek prefixes go with Greek suffixes and Latin prefixes with Latin suffixes.

5. The roots, prefixes and suffixes are often derived from Greek or Latin, and often quite dissimilar from their English-language variants.

6. The word root is developed to include a vowel sound following the term to add a smoothing action to the sound of the word when applying a suffix.

7. For example, in the disorder hypertension, the prefix "hyper-" means "high" or "over", and the root word "tension" refers to pressure, so the word "hypertension" refers to abnormally high blood pressure.

8. Suffixes are attached to the end of a word root to add meaning such as condition, disease process, or procedure.

9. The result is the formation of a new term with a vowel attached (word root + vowel) called a combining form.

10. Medical terminology is language used to describe the human body including its components, processes, conditions affecting it, and procedures performed upon it.

11. Much medical language is anatomical terminology, concerning itself with the names of various parts of the body.