Abstract
Every medical word comes from somewhere, or someone, and few originated in the English language. Most of today’s medical terms trace their origins to ancient Greek and Latin. Only a few come from modern European or Asian languages. Words, even those we use in the clinic, have personalities. Some medical words, such as murmur, seem pleasant, almost euphonious; others such as grippe and scabies are ugly. Some medical words have status: Expectorate is more refined than spitting. This chapter presents an overview of medical word origins and how some of today’s medical terms began several millennia ago.
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Taylor, R.B. (2017). About Medical Words and Their Origins. In: The Amazing Language of Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50328-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50328-8_1
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