Notes on the Unit 1 Prefixes Table
Notes on the Unit 1 Root Words Table
Words that contain the Greek vowel combination ai are often rendered as æ or ae, especially in Medical British English. For example, hemorrhage (from the Greek haimo) is often written hæmorrhage in Britain.
Notes on the Unit 1 Suffixes Table
malac means soft
add –ia (word ending meaning disease process)
–malacia is a suffix meaning softening due to disease
add –ia (word ending meaning disease process)
–malacia is a suffix meaning softening due to disease
mega means large
add l to make it sound good, and y (word ending meaning disease process)
–megaly is a suffix meaning enlargement due to disease
add l to make it sound good, and y (word ending meaning disease process)
–megaly is a suffix meaning enlargement due to disease
hem is the root word for blood
drop the ‘h’ (you barely said it anyway), now it’s em
add –ia (word ending meaning “disease process”)
–emia is a suffix meaning present in blood, indicating disease
drop the ‘h’ (you barely said it anyway), now it’s em
add –ia (word ending meaning “disease process”)
–emia is a suffix meaning present in blood, indicating disease
ur is the root word for urine (see root word list)
add –ia (word ending meaning disease process)
–uria is a suffix meaning present in urine, indicating disease
add –ia (word ending meaning disease process)
–uria is a suffix meaning present in urine, indicating disease
ec– is a prefix which means out of (see prefix list)
–tomy is a suffix which means cutting
–ectomy is a suffix which means cutting out of
hyper– is a prefix that means too much (see prefix list)
–trophy is a suffix that means nourishment, growth
–hypertrophy is a suffix which means too much nourishment or too much growth
–trophy is a suffix that means nourishment, growth
–hypertrophy is a suffix which means too much nourishment or too much growth
Notes on the Unit 2 Prefixes Table
Notes on the Unit 2 Root Words Table
Notes on the Unit 2 Suffixes Table
Notes on the Unit 3 Prefixes Table
di– is a prefix that can be confusing because it seems to have two disparate [pun intended] meanings
dia– means across, through
dis– means double, two
dia– means across, through
dis– means double, two
They both mean separate, apart.
When dia– or dis– are shortened to di–, it’s hard to separate [pun again] the true meaning.
Basically, we just have to “suck it up, buttercup” and figure out the meaning from the context and the etymology if we care to look it up.
Notes on the Unit 3 Root Words Table
The chemical grouping acetyl is found in vinegar (5% acetic acid, to chemists). The Italian name for vinegar is aceto. The same Latin root is also the source of the term acid, the next entry in the root word table.
The term blast is now used to refer to a rapidly dividing or immature cell, especially in descriptions of cancer (e.g. glioblastoma). Its original meaning, from the Greek blastós, means bud (like on a growing plant) from which it became rapidly growing and then rapidly dividing, out of control cell.
The Greek word ballein has given us the English ball and ballistic. In clinical medicine, ballistic movements are those that cannot be controlled after they are started. In this context, we are throwing molecules around in metabolism, which is comprised of catabolism and anabolism.
The roots chondr/o (as in cartilage) and chondrion (as in mitochondrion) are related. Cartilage is a grainy tissue, and mitochondria are thread-like grains that can be seen inside a cell through the microscope.
The Greek word pathos means deep feeling or emotion. In drama, pathos is feeling that is overdone and schmaltzy. In Medical English, pathology is the study of disease (presumably because of the pain or feeling caused by disease). Here, it is being used to describe the feelings that molecules have, either for being around water (hydrophilic), against being around water (hydrophobic), or okay either way (amphipathic).
The Greek word peptos (cooked, digested) was part of the description of digestion. We still see it in the brand name Pepto-Bismol or the fancy word dyspeptic. As the first proteins discovered were byproducts of digestion, peptide began to be used to refer to a protein. Now, a polypeptide is the name for a small protein.
Note the similarity of plasm (a substance that can be molded) to plastic (a substance that can be molded) or even plastic surgery (molding the structure of the human body).
Notes on the Unit 3 Suffixes Table
Notes on the Unit 3 Word List
Chromosomes are numbered from largest (1) to smallest (21). (Chromosome 22 was thought to be the smallest by scientists looking through microscopes, but when the human genome was sequenced in the 1990s, chromosome 21 turned out to be smaller and it was too confusing to renumber them.)
Chromosome 1 is a polymer with 249,000,000 DNA base pair monomers (A-T or C-G); chromosome 21 is a polymer with “only” 45,000,000 “rungs” on its twisted ladder (double helix).
There are also X chromosomes (size between chromosome 7 and 8) and Y chromosomes (third smallest, slightly larger than 21 or 22).
In a colloid, particles are big enough to scatter light but too small to be removed by a medical centrifuge.
In a solution, particles are too small to scatter light or be removed by a medical centrifuge. Particles in a solution are molecules or collections of molecules; they are generally about 1/100,000 of a millimeter in size.
In a suspension, particles are big enough to scatter light and to be removed by a medical centrifuge. Particles in a suspension are cells or cell fragments; they are generally about 1/1,000 of a millimeter or larger.
Notes on the Unit 4 Prefixes Table
Three prefixes (e–, ec–, ex–) come out of the same Greek term: ek. So, they all mean the same thing: out, without, from.
Notes on the Unit 4 Root Words Table
Notes on the Unit 4 Suffixes Table
The ending –ing is used in English to form the present participle. This indicates a verb tense that is ongoing, including past, present, and/or future:
- I am thinking about it.
- I have been thinking about it.
- I will be thinking about it.
- We are going.
- I’m having none of this.
Notes on the Unit 4 Word List
Albinos are not evil, but in cheap fiction and movies, they are. It’s really lazy writing to do this, but it happens all the time.
Even though this is not a Medical English word, it helps you remember kerato as a root for “horn” (it’s originally trikeratops, since Greek does not have a “c”). It also increases your street cred with any 5 year olds you might know.
