Medical Terminology has a history in Latin and Greek languages. Many of the terms used back in the days are used today resulting in new medical concepts regarding disease, treatment and containment. Medical records were all written by hand, which allowed for books to be created.
Many of the medical terminology terms that we use today is credited to Hippocrates, who is said to be the “father of medicine”, and Claudius Galen, one of the most well-known doctors in the Roman Empire. Medical Terminology was created to identify the numerous body structures, diagnoses, instruments, procedures, protocols and medications.
It is arranged into three main parts: the word root, the prefix and the suffix. The word root is located in the middle and basically says what the word means or describes which body part. The prefix is found in front of word root and usually gives location of which organ it’s talking about. The suffix is found after the word root and determines the condition, process or procedure of the word. With these three concepts comes the combining vowel “o” which enables the word to flow smoothly in medical terms. The combining vowel is added to the word root before adding the suffix.
For the most part the suffix will need that combining vowel added to the word root unless the suffix itself begins with a vowel. For example, subhepatic, to break down this word you must figure out the prefix which is sub and it means under or below. In this word there is no combining vowel because the suffix, which is ic, starts with a vowel. The suffix ic means pertaining to and the word root which is hepat means liver. So when we break down the prefix, word root and suffix we come up with the meaning of the word which means pertaining to below the liver.