Chapter 1, Problem 1UMWE

Summary Introduction

In general, a medical word contains a word root, combining form, suffix, or prefix. There are three basic rules that are involved in building medical words: (i) The word root links the suffix that starts with a combining vowel or vowel; (ii) The combining form (word root + vowel) links the suffix that starts with a consonant; (iii) The combining form links one “word root” to another “word root” to create a compound word.

Answer to Problem 1UMWE

The four elements used to form words are word root or root, combining form, suffix, and prefix.

Explanation of Solution

A “word root” is referred to as the foundation of a “medical term” and the word root contains the primary meaning of the medical term. Generally, all medical terms contain minimum one-word root. The word roots are mostly derived from either the Greek language or Latin language. Therefore, two different roots can denote the same meaning. For instance, “dermatos” is derived from the Greek word and “cutane” is derived from the Latin word, however, both words refer or denote to the skin. According to the general rule, the Greek roots refer to a disease, condition, treatment, or diagnosis, whereas, the Latin roots refer to the anatomical structures. Thereby, the Greek root such as “dermat” refers to the disease, condition, treatment, or diagnosis related to the skin and the Latin root “cutane” refers to the anatomical structure of the skin.

In the medical term splenomegaly, “splen” is the word root, “o” is the combining vowel, and “megaly” is a suffix. The word root, “splen” describes the spleen. The combining of a word root and a combining vowel (i or o) results in the formation of a combining form, for example, “spleno”. The combining vowel (i or o) does not have any meaning, however, used for connecting two or more than two-word elements, for example, splenomegaly (spleen/o/megaly). The suffix –megaly denotes enlargement. Hence, the word, splenomegaly is known as the enlargement of the spleen.

A suffix is referred to as a word element that placed or attached at the end of a word. The suffix alters the meaning of a word. Generally, all medical terms contain the suffix. For example, in the medical terms, pancreatitis and pancreatopathy, -itis (refers to inflammation) and –pathy (refers to a disease) are suffixes. In medical terminology, the suffix is used to describe a pathology, symptom, diagnosis, treatment, or part of speech.

A prefix is referred to as a word element that attached or placed to the beginning of a word root or word. Most medical terms have the prefix, however, not all. The addition of a prefix to the word can alter the meaning of a word. In medical terminology, the prefix is used to describe a number, time, direction, position, or negative. For example, in medical terms such as hyperthermia and intramuscular, hyper- (refers to excessive or above normal) and intra- (refers to in or within) are prefixes. A number of same prefixes used in both medical terminology as well as in the English language.