CLAS 2888

At the birth of modern medicine, medical students and practitioners were fluent in Greek and Latin, but today knowledge of these languages is not common, and today’s students of Medical Science sometimes struggle with the huge, specialized Greco-Latin vocabularies of their future profession. In this class, rather than using brute-force memorization to absorb this vocabulary, we start with the roots of Greek and Latin and approach terminology through the predictable patterns of combined roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Students will also learn the small amount of Latin grammar required to understand the phrases of the Terminologia Anatomica (the standard international nomenclature, which is entirely in Latin). Each class, students will be required to learn around fifty new roots and their meanings. Medical Science students who complete this course will be able to define newly encountered compounds and phrases through analysis of their parts and will acquire an understanding of the history of technical Latin, its principles, and the etymology of Latin and Greek terms that have passed into English. For each lecture, students will be required to learn around fifty new roots and their meanings; the professor will explain their etymologies in terms best suited to facilitate memorization. Rules of root (or stem) combinations will also be examined, leading to easier generalization of word-formation. Most weeks will include Latin endings that are essential to an understanding of forms of the Terminologia Anatomica. Students will also be challenged to work through exercises, in and out of class, that are conducive to the absorption of this material.