Textbook for the Veterinary Assistant. Lori Renda-Francis

veterinary assistants to understand the meaning of the word parts in order to be able to dissect medical terms in a logical way.

      Spelling

      Correct spelling of medical terms is essential because a misspelled word may give an entirely different meaning! Changing just one or two letters can change the entire meaning of a word. For example, a macrocyte is an abnormally large red blood cell, but a microcyte is an abnormally small red blood cell. Two or more medical terms may also be pronounced in the same way but have different meanings. For example, ileum and ilium are pronounced in the same way. However, ileum is the distal part of the small intestine while ilium is part of the pelvis.

      Tips for succeeding in learning medical terminology

Since students learn in various ways, it is important to utilize a variety of methods to learn medical terminology. For some students, writing words helps them to learn faster than simply reading them. Some students retain material better when they use various learning methods. Speaking into a tape recorder and using it to practice pronunciation is helpful. Proper pronunciation of medical terms takes time and practice. Listening to how words are pronounced by medical professionals and using medical dictionaries and textbooks are the best ways to learn pronunciation. Making flash cards to quiz yourself may be another useful method. There are also online quizzes and flash cards available. The key is repetition. Learning and memorizing these terms will require time and concentration.

      Now that you have a basic understanding of the different parts of a word, let’s look at some commonly used prefixes, suffixes, and root words.

Prefixes

      By learning the meanings of the commonly utilized prefixes, you will be able to break down unfamiliar words to find out their meaning. It may be helpful to divide them into categories according to their meaning. Below are the prefixes arranged into six categories.

      1 Prefixes related to position regarding time and place

      2 Prefixes describing position or location

      3 Prefixes related to type

      4 Prefixes related to direction

      5 Prefixes describing number or quantity

      6 Prefixes related to size, amount, and color

      If we have the root word “operative” we can change the meaning by inserting different prefixes. For example:

       preoperative – before a surgery

       postoperative – after the surgery

       perioperative – around the time of the surgery

      Prefixes related to position regarding time and place:

ana‐	up, back again
ante‐	before, in front of, forward
cata‐	down, through
meta‐	beyond, over, between, change, after
noct‐	night
post‐	after, behind
pre‐	before, in front of
prim‐	first
sym‐, syn‐	together, union, with

      Prefixes describing position or location:

anti‐	against, opposing
apo‐	separation from or derivation from
circum‐	around
contra‐	opposite, against, opposed
dorso‐	pertaining to the back
ecto‐	outside, misplaced
endo‐	within, inner
epi‐	on, over, upon
extra‐	outside of, in addition to
hyper‐	above, excessive, beyond
hypo‐	under, deficient, beneath
infra‐	below
inter‐	between parts
intra‐	within parts
medi‐	middle
para‐	beside, beyond
peri‐	around
pro‐	for, in front of, before
pseudo‐	false
sub‐	beneath, under
super‐, supra‐	excessive, above, superior
trans‐	across, through, over, beyond
ultra‐	excessive, extreme, beyond

      Prefixes related to type:

a‐, an‐	without, absent, lack of
auto‐	self
bi‐	two, double, twice
brady‐	slow
co‐, com‐, con‐	with, together
cry‐	cold
crypto‐	hidden
dys‐	difficult, bad, painful, abnormal
eu‐	good, normal
glyco‐, gluco‐	sugar, sweet
gyn‐, gyneco‐	female
hydra‐, hydro‐ Скачать книгу В начало < 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 > В конец