Deciphering "Doc-talk": Prefixes and Suffixes

It has taken a while to get this together for a number of reasons. Principally I have been procrastinating, but I have also had to complete a major project, have had a marvelous vacation in Oregon and southern California, a nasty bout of sinusitis, and have been trying to find a way to make this comprehensible.

Many of our medical terms have their origin in the Greek and Latin languages. This reflects the history of the art of medicine in European culture as well as the continuity of scientific knowledge. In the hope of making this easier GREEK roots will be in capitals and those with Latin roots will be italicized. English meanings are in quotation marks. This listing is, in no way, intended to be complete. Only more common roots are included.

Aside from the medical terms, there are a number of basic prefixes that transcend subject areas. These are useful beyond the topic.

• A or AN mean “not.” However in Latin it is il, which along with im, in also means against, into, or on.
  
• Post means “after” while pre means “before;”
  
• HYPER means “above”, HYPO means “under” and ultra means “beyond.”
  
• ENTO, ECTO, and ENDO mean “inside or interior” in Greek while in Latin it’s intra, intro.
  
• “Outside” is EX, EXO, extra. PERI means “around”, trans means “through on the far side of”.
  
• “Under” can be expressed in several ways in Latin: sub, suc, suf, sum, sup. Super, supra mean “above.”
  
• Ob, oc is Latin for “against.”
  
• Finally the prefix meaning “with” is expressed as SY(M), SYL, SYN and cum. Medical persons will usually abbreviate “with” by writing a letter c with a line over it.

Let’s begin the medical terms at the beginning with basic and more widely distributed physical entities.

• “Cell” is CYTO; PLAST when used as a suffix.
  
• “Tissue” is HISTO, HYMENO is “membrane.”
  
• “Body” is SOMATO as prefix and SOMA; STOMOUS when used as a suffix.
  
• OO and ovi refer to “egg.” SPERMATO is “seed”, ZYGO means “double, yolk.” GAMO denotes “united, copulation”; GONO is “sexual reproduction.”
  
• “Blood” comes from HAEMA or sangui; as suffix EMIA; THROMBO means “blood clot”
  
• ADENO means “gland;” DERM refers to “skin.”
  
• OSTEO and ossi refer to bone. NOTO references the “back of the body” while PLEURO is used for the “side of the body.” ARTHRO means “joint”, CHONDRO refers to “cartilage”, MYO refers to “muscle” and BRACHI means “arm.”
  

Moving on to the head, face, and neck we find the following:

• CEPHALO means “head” while the suffixes would be CEPHALIC, CEPHALOUS;
  
• “Brain” is CEREBRO, ENCEPHALO or PHRENO; “skull” is CRANIO, but PSYCH refers to “mind, spirit, or soul.”
  
• NEURO means “nerve”, MYELO, “spinal cord” and RACHI, RACHIO is the “spine.” Poliomyelitis is an infectious viral disease that attacks the spinal cord and “grey matter” brain stem.
  
• TRICHIO/IA refers to hair.
  
• BLEPHARO means “eyelid”; OPTHALMO and oculo mean “eye;” as a suffix OPIA refers to “sight.”
  
• OTO refers to the “ear.” Naso and RHINO mean the “nose.”
  
• ORO and STOMATO both refer to “mouth” but the latter word usually means a general opening into something like an intestine, labio is “lip”, GLOSSO, “tongue”, BRONCHO, “throat”, GNATHO is “jaw” and CERVICO refers to the “neck.”
  
• “Tooth” can be denti or ODONTO. Combined with ORTHO which means “straight’ or ENDO meaning “within” you can see where the words orthodontist and endodontist come from. If you note, you will have to pay a lot more for the ODONTO word than denti.
  

Organs and systems in the rest of the body have their own Greek and Latin origins.

• The “lung” references are PNEUMO and pulmo; spiro refers to “breath.”
  
• CARDIO means “heart”, PHLEBO refers to “vein”, SPHYGMO means “pulse.” Arteries were a late discovery. The name of the machine that takes your blood pressures is sphygmomanometer. A myocardial infarction means the death of a portion of the heart muscle due to a blood clot in the coronary artery that interrupts blood flow to the heart.
  
• “Stomach” originates from COELA, GASTRO; SPLANCHNO and ENTERO refer to “guts.” SCATO and sterco describe “excrement.”
  
• HEPATO means “liver,” CHOLE, CHOLO means “bile.” Cholesterol is actually a steroid alcohol manufactured by the liver that is a bile precursor. It is not “body fat” which comes from LIPO.
  
• Reni and NEPHRO refer to the “kidney,” which is charged with filtering out TOXIO, or poisons, to be excreted through the “bladder” CYSTO. Do not confuse this root with CYST which is a “fluid filled sac,” possibly containing PYO or “pus.”
  
• HYSTERO means “womb” and INGUINO refers to the “groin.” At the very bottom of the body we find PES, PEDIS better known as the “feet.”

Miscellaneous medical prefixes and suffixes conclude this somewhat dizzying listing.

• IATRO, IATRICS, IATRY mean “medicine,” while IASIS refers to “disease.” PATHO and PATHY also mean “suffering or disease.” SEPSIS refers to infection or contamination while ITIS means “inflammation.” ALGIA and ODYNIA refer to “pain.”
  
• LEUKO means “white,” POLIO is grey, and MELANO refers to “black.”
  
• SCHISTO, SCHIZO means “split” and ANKYLO means “curved, bent.” SCELERO means “hard” and STENO refers to “narrow or short.”
  
• HYPNO means “sleep” as does somni. ONEIRO refers to “dream.”
  
• OMA and CELE when used as a suffix refer to “tumor.” PLASIA, PLASIS means “growth.”
• Other suffixes: PHOBIA means “fear”, MANIA means “craving,” PLEGIA means “paralysis”, RRHEA, RRHAGIA refers to “flow” but RRHAPY means “surgical stitching.” TOMY means “cutting.”
  
• Finally, TACHY is “rapid”, TRACHY is “rough” and ZER, ZERO means “dryness.”