Medical terminology

Medical terminology is language used to describe the components, processes, conditions, medical procedures and treatments of the human body.
In the English language, medical terminology generally has a regular morphology; the same prefixes and suffixes are used to add meanings to different roots. The root of a term often refers to an organ, tissue, or condition, and medical roots and affixes are often derived from Ancient Greek or Latin. Many medical terms are examples of neoclassical compounds. Historically, all European universities used Latin as the dominant language of instruction and research, as Neo-Latin was the lingua franca of science, medicine, and education in Europe during the early modern period.
Medical terminology includes a large part of anatomical terminology, which includes the anatomical terms of location, motion, muscle, bone, and histology. It also includes language from biology, chemistry, physics, and physiology, as well as vocabulary unique to the field of medicine, such as medical abbreviations. Each branch of medicine has its own clinical and scientific terminology. Medical dictionaries are specialised dictionaries for medical terminology and may be organised alphabetically or according to medical classification systems such as the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine, International Classification of Diseases, or Unified Medical Language System.
Examples of modern medical dictionaries include Mosby's Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health Professions, Stedman's, Taber's, and ''Dorland's.''

Linguistics

In the English language, medical terms generally have a regular morphology, often being compound words that comprise three kinds of morphemes: roots, prefixes, and suffixes. The etymology of medical terms often originates from Latin and Ancient Greek, with such medical terms being examples of neoclassical compounds. Each language may supply relevant morphemes for medical terms. For example, there are two primary roots for medical terminology relating to kidneys - one from Greek and one from Latin.
Lexical items of medical terminology, which forms part of international scientific vocabulary, are translingual. The use of ISV was a driving force in the development of the constructed language known as Interlingua. From the 1950s to late 1970s, a number of medical journals were published, or used, Interlingua.

Morphology

are often derived from Greek or Latin.

Roots

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. The result is the formation of a new term with a vowel attached called a combining form. In English, the most common vowel used in the formation of the combining form is the letter -o-, added to the word root. For example, if there is an inflammation of the stomach and intestines, this would be written as gastro- and enter- plus -itis, gastroenteritis.
The formation of plurals should usually be done using the rules of the source language. Greek and Latin each have differing rules to be applied when forming the plural form of the word root.

Affixes

Prefixes and suffixes, primarily in Greek—but also in Latin, have a droppable -o-. As a general rule, this vowel almost always acts as a joint-stem to connect two consonantal roots, but generally, the -o- is dropped when connecting to a vowel-stem. Generally, Greek prefixes go with Greek suffixes and Latin prefixes with Latin suffixes. Although it is technically considered acceptable to create hybrid words, it is strongly preferred in coining new terms not to mix different lingual roots. Examples of accepted medical words that do mix lingual roots are neonatology and quadriplegia.
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-. Suffixes are attached to the end of a word root to add meaning such as condition, disease process, or procedure. Suffixes are categorized as either needing the combining form, or not needing the combining form since they start with a vowel.

Gross anatomy

Descriptive human anatomy often uses terminology that is fairly correct descriptive Latin. For example, musculus gluteus maximus simply means the "largest rump muscle", where was Latin for "little mouse" and applied to muscles; a frenum, a structure for keeping something in place, is Latin for bridle; and a foramen is Latin for a passage or perforation.

Location and motion

A standardised set of terminology is used in anatomy to describe relative and absolute location and movement of anatomical parts. The standard anatomical position is the orientation that anatomical terms of location and motion are typically used in reference to. In humans, this refers to the body in a standing position with arms at the side and palms facing forward. Other positions referenced in medicine include prone and supine.

Planes and axes

Relative to the standard anatomical position, three anatomical planes are widely used in medicine:

The parasagittal or paramedian or sagittal planes, which include the median or midsagittal plane and divide the body into left and right.
The frontal or coronal plane, which divide the body into front and back.
The axial or horizontal or transverse plane, which is perpendicular to the other two planes.

The transpyloric plane, the subcostal plane, and the transumbilical plane planes are also considered in the division of the torso into the quadrants and regions of the abdomen.
The three main axes of a human are the left-right, the craniocaudal, and the anteroposterior axes. Other anatomical lines include the axillary lines, parasternal line, and scapular line.

Location

Many anatomical terms can be combined to indicate a position in two axes simultaneously or the direction of a movement relative to the body: Anterolateral indicates a position that is both anterior and lateral to the standard anatomical position or a named organ such as the anterolateral tibial tubercle; anteromedial is used, for example, in the anteromedial central arteries; proximodistal describes the axis of an appendage such as an arm or a leg, taken from its tip at the distal part to where it joins the body at the proximal part. Combined terms were once generally hyphenated, but typically the hyphen is omitted.
In radiology, various X-ray views use terminology based on where the X-ray beam enters and leaves the body, including the front to back view, the back to front view, and the side view.

Motion

Circumduction is a conical movement of a body part, such as a ball and socket joint or the eye. Circumduction is a combination of flexion, extension, adduction and abduction. Circumduction may be performed at ball and socket joints, such as the hip and shoulder, as well as other parts of the body such as fingers, hands, feet, and head. For example, circumduction occurs when spinning the arm when performing a serve in tennis or bowling a cricket ball.

Anatomical region	Movement	Definition	Etymology	Related terms	Source
Carpal	Palmarflexion	Flexion of the wrist joint, towards the palm and ventral side of forearm.	Latin Greek , wrist
Carpal	Dorsiflexion	Extension of the wrist joint, towards the dorsal side of forearm.
Carpal	Radial deviation	Adduction of the wrist, which moves the hand towards the ulnar styloid, or, towards the little finger.
Carpal	Ulnar deviation	Abduction of the wrist, which moves the hand towards the radial styloid, or, towards the thumb.
Plantar /pedal	Plantarflexion	Flexion in the direction of the sole.
Plantar /pedal	Dorsiflexion	Flexion in the direction of the back of the foot.
Plantar /pedal	Inversion	Rotation that tilts the sole of the foot away from the midline.		Sprained ankle
Plantar /pedal	Eversion	Rotation that tilts the sole of the foot towards the midline.
Upper/lower limbs	Pronation	Rotation of an appendage so that the corresponding extremity is facing anteriorly.	Greek , before, in front of	Pronation of the foot
Upper/lower limbs	Supination	Rotation of an appendage so that the corresponding extremity is facing posteriorly.
Sacral	Nutation	Rotation of promontory downwards and anteriorly, as with lumbar extension.	Latin lumbus or lumbaris, loin	Lumbar
Sacral	Counternutation	Rotation of promontory upwards and posteriorly, as with lumbar flexion.

Integumentary

The integumentary system is the set of organs forming the outermost layer of the human body, comprising the skin, hair, and nails. It acts as a protective physical barrier between the external environment and the internal environment, while maintaining water balance, protecting deeper tissue, excreting waste, and regulating body temperature.
The skin is a composite organ, made up of the outermost epidermis and the inner dermis. The epidermis comprises five layers: the stratum corneum, stratum granulosum, stratum spinosum and stratum basale. Where the skin is thicker, such as in the palms and soles, there is an extra layer of skin between the stratum corneum and the stratum granulosum known as the stratum lucidum. The dermis comprises two sections, the papillary and reticular layers, and contains connective tissues, blood vessels, glands, follicles, hair roots, sensory nerve endings, and muscular tissue. Between the integument and the deep body musculature there is a transitional subcutaneous zone, the hypodermis.