Greek and Latin in Scientific Terminology, Lecture 3
 Andrew Dunning
 25 September 2014

Practice Quiz
Define
CRY-, CRYM-
•	‘cold’, ‘ice’
•	CRY-AESTHE-sia, abnormal sensitiveness to cold
THERM-
•	‘heat’
•	a-dia-THERM-ancy, imperviousness to heat waves; hyper-THERM-algesia, abnormal sensitivity to heat
ODONT-
•	‘tooth’
•	ex-ODONT-ist, a specialist in tooth extraction; pros-TH-ODONT-ia; the replacement of teeth by artificial means, a branch of dentistry
GYMN-
•	‘naked’, ‘uncovered’
•	GYMNO-SOMAT-ous; GYMNO-CARP-ous, with naked fruit (applicable to lichens with uncovered apothecia); GYMNO-RHIN-al, having nostril region not covered by feathers, as some birds
RHIN-, -RRHIN-
•	‘nose’
•	amphi-RHIN-al, having or pertaining to two nostrils; GYMNO-RHIN-al, with nostril region not covered by feathers, as in some birds; RHIN-ENCEPHAL-on, that portion of the cerebrum concerned with olfactory impulses; RHINO-THECA, the sheath of the upper jaw of a bird
PY-
•	‘pus’
•	HYDRO-PYO-NEPHRO-sis, distention of the pelvis of the kidney with urine and pus; PYO-RRHE-a, a purulent discharge
-al
•	‘pertaining to’, ‘like’, ‘belonging to’, ‘having the character of’
•	BIO- ‘life’ + -logy, ‘science of’ + ic + al
AESTHE-, (ESTHE-)
•	‘to feel’, ‘to perceive’
•	syn-AESTHE-sia, a secondary sensation accompanying an actual perception; ACANTH-AESTHE-sia, a sensation as of pricking with a needle
CYT-
•	‘cell’
•	CHROMO-CYTE, any coloured cell; CYTO-DERM, in botany, a cell wall; CYTO-STOME, the oral aperture of a unicellular organism
NEPHR-
•	‘kidney’
•	peri-NEPHR-ium, the connective or adipose tissue surrounding a kidney
BI-
•	‘life’
•	sym-BIO-sis, living together for mutual benefit
-ic, -tic, (-ac after -i)
•	‘pertaining to’, ‘like’
•	GASTR-, ‘stomach’ + -ic; STA-, ‘to stand’ + -ic; CARDI-, ‘heart’ + -ac
en- + anti-
•	‘opposite’
•	enantiopathy (the treatment of disease by contraries), enantiobiosis (the condition in which associated organisms are antagonistic to each other)
-ous (-ious)
•	‘full of’, ‘having’, ‘pertaining to’, ‘like’
•	amphi- + BI-, ‘life’ + -ous; syn- + ONYM- ‘name’ + -ous; HOMO-, ‘same’ + GENE-, ‘kind’ + -ous
-iasis
•	‘diseased condition’; often refers to an infestation by parasites
•	psoriasis, amebiasis, elephantiasis
dys-
•	‘bad’, ‘disordered’, ‘difficult’
•	dysentery, dystrophy
-ics, -tics
•	‘art, science or study of’
•	PHYS-, ‘nature’ + -ics; GENE-, ‘to be produced’ + -tics’; PAED, ‘child’ + IATR-, ‘doctor’ + -ics
HEPAT-, HEPAR-
•	‘liver’
•	HEPAR-in, a substance or mixture of substances occurring in liver and other tissues having the property of prolonging the clotting time of blood; HEPAT-itis, inflammation of the liver
-ectomy
•	‘surgical operation’, ‘surgical removal of’
•	appendectomy, tonsillectomy
-oecious
•	‘having a house or dwelling’
•	monoecious (having male and female sex organs in the same individual), androdioecious (having perfect and staminate flowers on different plants)
Transliterate
ἄσθμα
•	asthma
νέος
•	neos (new, young)
•	neologism, neophyte
ἄρκτος
•	arktos (bear, Ursa Major, pole star)
ἀντίδοτον
•	antidoton (antidote)
ἀνά
•	ana (again)
σοφία
•	sophia (knowledge, wisdom)
•	philosophy
θησαυρός
•	thēsauros (storehouse, treasure)
•	thesaurus, treasure
ἀέριος
•	aerios (aerial)
ἀπολογία
•	apologia (apology)
•	apo, ‘away’ + -logia, denoting a subject of study or interest (e.g. psychology)
ὥρα
•	hōra (season, hour)
•	horology, horoscope
βιβλίον
•	biblion (book)
•	bibliography, bibliomania, Bible
νίκη
•	nikē (victory)
ζῷον
•	zōon (animal)
•	zoology
ἀντί
•	anti (opposite)
ἔμφασις
•	emphasis
ἀμνησία
•	amnēsia
ἀνατομία
•	anatomia
Ἀσία
•	Asia
βακτήριον
•	bactērion (staff, cane)
τῆλε
•	tēle (afar, far off)
•	telegram, telephone, television
Last Time
The Greek Alphabet
•	For the upcoming test, you should be able to recognize words written in Greek (e.g. πλαγκτόν) and be able to write out the transliterated form (plankton).
–	You do not need to know how breathing marks work.
•	Remember: γ before γ, κ, ξ, or χ becomes n, not g:
–	σπόγγος = spongos (sponge)
•	When a word has what appears to be an opening single quotation mark above a letter, it uses an h- sound.
–	ἱπποπόταμος = hippopotamos (hippopotamus)
Inflection
•	Words in Greek and Latin change their form to show their grammatical function.
Gender
•	Words in Greek and Latin are classified by gender (masculine, feminine, neuter).
•	This concept is largely detached from natural sex.
•	Read Dirckx (1985).
Suffixes
•	Suffixes attach to roots, and appear at the end of the word.
•	They differ from prefixes in their position, but also in that they determine the word’s part of speech.
•	Džuganová (1998) provides a full overview of the possibilities for affixation.
•	Suffixes can be used to turn a word into an adjective, noun, or verb.
This Class
•	Introducing Greek and Latin cases.
•	Current scientific use of Greek and Latin terminology.
•	Greek noun-forming suffixes.
Inflected Languages
Inflection
•	Both Greek and Latin are inflected languages, which means that they can express part of their meaning through a change in the final syllable of a word.
Conjugation
•	Changing the form of a verb to show its function.
•	This is found to a limited degree in English.
–	I love, you love, but he loves.
•	This is even more common in French.
–	J’aime means ‘I love’, tu aimes is ‘you love’, and so forth. The verb ‘aimer’ changes its form based on the person, number, mood, and tense.
Greek Verbs
•	Conjugated from one of six basic forms, called principal parts. Some verbs do not have all six parts, and others are irregular.
•	Knowing the form of a verb found in a dictionary will not always help you.
•	Greek dictionaries cite verbs in the first-person singular form (i.e. ‘I love’), but English dictionaries will typically provide the infinitive form (‘to love’).
•	Greek infinitives typically end in -ein; also possible are -ai, -an, -oun, and -sthai.
—————
•	Sometimes the form of a verb listed in a dictionary is not actually the basis for the root form in English.
•	For example, if you look up genesis in an English dictionary, you will be told that it is from the verb γίγνεσθαι (gignesthai, be born or produced), but one must look up γίγνομαι (gignomai) in a Greek dictionary.
–	The root form, GEN- (also e.g. in pathogenic) comes from ἐγενόμην (egenomēn), which supplies one of the past tenses, called the aorist.
•	If you’re stuck, use the Perseus Word Study Tool to look up a declined or conjugated form of the word.
Declension
•	Varying the form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective, in order to indicate grammatical number, gender, and case.
Cases
•	A form that a noun, adjective, or pronoun can take in order to express its relationship to other words in the sentence.
•	There are very limited remnants of this in English:
–	Who must always be the subject of the sentence. (‘Who is getting married?’)
–	Whom must be the object. (‘Whom did he marry?’)
–	Whose is a possesive. (‘Whose wedding is he attending?’)
•	In Greek, there are five cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative.
—————
1.	Nominative
–	The bird flies.
–	Avis fugit.
–	Ὄρνις πετεται.
2.	Vocative
–	O Βird!
–	O Αvis!
–	Ὤ Ὄρνις.
3.	Accusative
–	I see the bird.
–	Avem video.
–	Ὁρω την ὀρνιθα.
—————
4.	Genitive
–	The wing of the bird.
–	Penna avis.
–	Πτέρον ὄρνιθος.
5.	Dative
–	I gave the bird a seed.
–	Avi semen dedi.
–	Ἔδωκα σπέρμα τῇ ὄρνιθι.
6.	[Ablative: Latin only]
–	I hear a sound from the bird.
–	Ab ave sonitum audio.
Greek Third-Declenion Nouns
•	Like verbs, one cannot always be sure that the form in a word will actually be what is listed in a dictionary.
•	In the third declension, forms other than the nominative are taken from the genitive.
•	Thus, derma, dermatos (skin) gives us dermalgia and hypodermic, but also dermatology and dermatitis
•	Gastēr, gastros (stomach) provides gastric, gastritis, epigaster
The Heart (καρδία/cor, cordis)
—————

Vena Cava
•	Latin phrase: ‘hollow vein’
•	Came into English in the 16th century.
Pulmonary
•	Latin pulmonarius, from pulmo, pulmon- ‘lung’
•	17th cent.
Tricuspid
•	tri- ‘three’ + cuspis, cuspid- ‘cusp’, ‘point’
•	17th cent.
Atrium
•	Latin: a reception hall in a Roman house
•	16th cent.
Ventricle
•	Latin ventriculus, diminutive of venter ‘belly’
•	late Middle English
Aorta
•	Greek aortē, from aeirein ‘raise’
•	16th cent.: used in the plural by Hippocrates for the branches of the windpipe, and by Aristotle for the great artery
Mitral
•	mitralis, from Latin mitra ‘mitre’ (a tall headdress worn by bishops); Greek Greek mitra ‘belt or turban’
•	17th cent.
Poetic Usage
•	Our use of the word ‘heart’ to refer to emotion comes from Greek/Latin usage, and in ancient usage was more than merely figurative.
•	Galen appears to have been one of the earliest authors to use the term in opposition to the mind (as the seat of reason).
–	Discussed in the programme Heart vs Mind: What Makes Us Human (starting around 7m25s).
Forming English Medical Terminology
Džuganová (2013)
•	Examines ‘precisely worked-out and internationally standardised anatomical nomenclature’ and ‘quickly developing non-standardised terminologies of individual clinical branches’, concentrating on the field of haematology.
•	In the past, new terminology has been formed through derivation and composition from elements of Greek and Latin
–	derivation: Forming a word from the stems of other words. What we are mostly concerned with in this course.
–	composition/compounding: Adding on another word to make the term more specific (e.g. blood pressure, lifespan, gallstone).
Spreading of Vocabulary
•	Flows through three basic methods:
1.	forming new names
2.	forming new meanings
3.	borrowing words from other languages
—————
•	Or by another scheme:
1.	morphological by means of derivation, compounding, abbreviation;
2.	syntactic by forming collocations and multi-word phrases;
3.	semantic by narrowing (specifying) the meaning of common words, by metaphoric and metonymic transfer of the previous meaning;
4.	borrowing words from other languages.
•	The syntactic method is now most common in the sciences (the forming of compounds, which often end up as abbreviations).
–	AIDS, for example, is the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Other Terms
•	acronyms: an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word, e.g. SARS (something unpronouceable is an initialism, e.g. BBC)
•	synonyms: normally a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language
–	in biology, a taxonomic name which has the same application as another, especially one which has been superseded and is no longer valid
—————
•	eponyms: a person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named or thought to be named
•	toponyms: a name derived from the name of a place (i.e. where it was discovered)
•	mythonyms: a word derived from a story
•	backronym: an expansion of an existing acronym, such as ‘port out, starboard home’ for posh.
Anopheles gambiae densovirus (AgDNV)
Example Words
—————
•	aedes
•	subtractive
•	insecticide
•	amplification
•	metabolism
•	malaria
•	larval
•	method
•	linear
•	envelope
•	virus
•	entomology
•	assayed
•	Enzymes
•	spodoptera
•	minimal
•	instar
•	Exposure
•	pharmaceutics
•	effective
Your Answers
Anopheles
•	(from Greek ἀνωϕελής unprofitable, useless)
aquatic
•	from Latin aquāticus watery, living in water, < aqua : water > (OED s.v. aquatic)
Arthropod
•	from Greek arthro ‘joint’ + pod ‘foot’ (OED s.v. ‘arthropod’, ‘arthro-’, ‘-pod’)
Candidate
•	from Latin candidatus ‘white-robbed’ (OED s.v. ‘candidate’)
hydrolysis
•	from Greek <ὕδωρ , <ὑδρο- water + <λύσις dissolving (OED s.v. ‘hydrolysis’)
Hydrolysis
•	from Greek hydro ‘water’ + lysis ‘dissolving’ (OED s.v. ‘hydrolysis’).
•	Greek- ὕδωρ (ὑδρο) water + (λύσις) dissolving (OED s.v. ‘hydrolysis’)
icosahedral
•	from Greek eikosaedron, from eikosi twenty + -edron-hedron
•	from greek eikosaedron, from eikosi ‘Twenty’ + hidra ‘base, or seat’ (OED s.v. ‘Icosahedron’)
immature
•	from Latin in ‘not’ + maturus ‘ripe’ (OED s.v. ‘immature’)
mechanism
•	from post classical latin: mechanismus; ancient greek: ‘machine’ + post classical latin ‘ismus’; (OED s.v ‘mechanism’)
metabolism
•	from Greek metabolē ‘change’ (from metaballein ‘to change’) + -ism (ODE s.v. ‘metabolism’)
microbe
•	from Greek mikros ‘small’ + bios ‘life’ (OED s.v. ‘microbe’)
•	French, microbes, from ancient Greek μικρο-/MICRO- (small) + post-classical Latiin, from ancient Greek βίο-/BIO-/BE- (life, course or way of living).
previous
•	from praevius. ‘going before’ (from prae ‘before’ + via ‘way’) (OED s.v. ‘previous’)
Symbiotic
•	from modern latin BI ‘life’ (OED s.v. ‘symbiotic’) sym-BIO-tic
virulence
•	comes from the Latin ‘virulentus’ (poisonous) which in turn comes from the Latin ‘virus’ (poison).
Noun-Forming Suffixes
-ter
•	‘means of’, ‘place of’
•	URE-, ‘to urinate’ + -ter = ureter
•	SCEP(T)-, ‘to support oneself’ + -ter = sceptre
•	SPHING-, ‘to bind’ + -ter = sphincter
•	CRA-, ‘to mix’ + -ter = crater (orig. a mixing bowl)
•	THEA-, ‘to view’ + -ter = theatre
-ist, -ast
•	‘one who’
•	ant- + AGON-, ‘to struggle’ + -ist
•	GYMN-, ‘naked’ + -ast
•	PSYCH-, ‘mind’ + IATR-, ‘physician’ + -ist
•	BACTER- ‘bacterium’ + -logy + -ist
-te, -t
•	‘one who’, ‘that which’, (-tes)
•	pro- + PHE-, ‘to speak’ + -t = prophet
•	GAME-, ‘to marry’ + -te = gamete
•	anti- + DO, ‘to give’ + -te = antidote
•	dia- + BE-, ‘to go’ + -tes = diabetes
-ician
•	‘specialist in’, ‘practitioner of’
•	PAED-, ‘child’ + IATR-, ‘physician’ + -ician = paediatrician
•	DIET-, ‘way of life’ + -ician = dietician
•	MUS-, ‘music’ + -ician = musician
-ia, -y
•	‘state of’, ‘condition of’, ‘quality of’
•	HYSTER-ia, NEUR-ALG-AGON-y, PHILO-SOPH-y
•	NEUR-, ‘nerve’ + ALG-, ‘pain’ + -ia = neuralgia
•	AGON-, ‘struggle’ + y = agony
•	PHIL-, ‘loving’ + SOPH-, ‘wise’ + -y = philosophy
-ism, -ismus
•	‘condition of’ (‘belief in’)
•	ALCOHOL + -ism; BOTUL-, ‘sausage’ + -ism; meta-BOL-ism; LARGYNG-, ‘larynx’ + -ismus; STRAB-, ‘to squint’ + -ism
-sis, -sia, -sy, -se
•	‘act of’, ‘process of’ (sometimes the result of the process)
•	para-LY-sis; syn-THE-sis; ana-LY-sis; dia-GNO-sis; a-MNE-sia; an-ESTHE-sia; ec-STA-sy
•	note: adjectival form -tic, -stic, ‘pertaining to the act or process of’, e.g. synthetic, analytic
-ma, -m, -me, -mat-
•	‘result of the act of’
•	CINE-ma; DRA-, ‘to act’ + -ma; STIG, ‘to brand’ + -ma; SCHIZ-, ‘to split’ + m; THE-, ‘to place’ + -me
-oma, -omat-
•	usually ‘tumour arising in or composed of’, occasionally ‘swelling containing’, ‘result of’
•	MELAN-oma; CARCIN-oma; HAEMAT-oma; GLAUC-oma
•	When followed by another element, the form is -omat-, e.g. MELAN-omat-ous
-osis
•	‘diseased condition of’, ‘act of’, ‘process of’
•	PSYCH-osis; NEUR-osis; HYPN-osis
-itis
•	‘inflammation of’, ‘inflammatory disease of’
•	APPENDIC-itis; ARTHR-itis; TONSILL-itis
-in
•	‘chemical substance’
•	anti-TOX-in; INSUL-in; epi-NEHRH-ine
-ium
•	‘part’, ‘lining or enveloping tissue’, ‘region’
•	peri-NEPHR-ium (the capsule of connective and fatty tissue about the kidney); epi-GASTR-ium (the upper and middle region of the abdomen)
-us
•	‘individual’, ‘person’
•	HYDRO-CEPHAL-us (a condition in which fluid accumulates in the brain)
-idae, -ida, -id
•	‘descended from’, ‘related to’
•	ACAR, ‘mite’ + -idae; ARACHN-ida; ARACHN-id
Key Roots
BROM-
•	‘stench’, ‘bromine’
•	BROMO-DERM-a; skin eruption due to ingestion of bromides; BROM-in-ism, bromine poisoning; bromide
CHOL(E)-
•	‘bile’, ‘gall’
•	CHOL-AGOGUE, agent which stimulates the flow of bile from the liver; CHOLO-CHROME, any bile pigment; EU-CHOLIA, normal condition of the bile; choleric; melancholy
HAEM-, HAEMAT-, (HEM-, HEMAT-)
•	‘blood’
•	a-CARDIO-HAEM-ia, lack of blood in the heart; HAEMATO-BI-c, living in blood; HAEMATO-PHAG-ous, pertaining to a blood-sucking insect
HIDRO(S)-
•	‘sweat’
•	syn-HIDROS-is, concurrent sweating; the association of perspiration with some other condition; ACRO-hyper-HIDROS-is, increased perspiration of the hands and feet; CHROM-HIDROS-is, a rare condition in which the sweat is coloured
LITH-, -LITE
•	‘stone’
•	CRYO-LITE, sodium-aluminium fluoride, named from its icy appearance; DACRYO-LITH, a calcareous concretion in the lacrimal passages; LITHO-PHYLL, a fossil leaf or leaf impression
ORTH-
•	‘straight’, ‘correct’
•	an-ORTH-ite, feldspar not at right angles in cleavage, oblique cleavage; ORTH-optic, pertaining to normal binocular vision
RHE-, -RRH
•	‘to flow’, ‘current’
•	dia-RRHOE-a; CRYPTO-RHE-tic, secreting internally, endocrine; RHEO-CARDIO-GRAPH-y, recording of differences of electrical conductivity of the body synchronous with the cardiac cycle; RHEO-PHORE, an electrode
SCOP-
•	‘to view’
•	CRYO-SCOPE, device for determining the freezing point of any liquid; endo-SCOPE, instrument used to examine an internal body cavity or viscus through its natural opening; SCOPO-phobia, morbid dread of being seen
STA-
•	‘to stand’, ‘to stop’, ‘to fix’, ‘to regulate’
•	a-cata-STA-sia, irregularity, nonconforming to type; BLEPHARO-dia-STA-sis, excessive separation of the eyelids, inability to close the eyelids completely; HAEMO-STA-sis, the stopping of a flow of blood
STYL-
•	‘pillar’
•	STYL-ite; STYLE, the slender upper part of the pistil; sy-STYL-ous, in botany, with coherent styles
CRA-
•	‘to mix’
•	CRA-sis, constitution, make-up; HAEMATO-dys-CRA-sia, diseased state of the blood; hypo-CRA-ter-iform, saucer-shaped
GALACT-, GALA-
•	‘milk’
•	GALACT-in, an amorphous substance derived from milk, a potent hormone stimulating lactation; GALACTO-RRHE-a, excessive flow of milk
GLOSS-, GLOT(T)-
•	‘tongue’, ‘language’
•	BRADY-GLOSS-ia, slow speech due to difficulty in tongue movements; PHRENO-GLOTT-ismus, spasm of the glottis caused by disease of the diaphragm
IDI-
•	‘one’s own’, ‘peculiar’, ‘distinct’
•	IDIO-BIO-logy, the branch of biology concerned with the study of organisms as individuals; IDIO-CHROM-atic, having a distinctive and constant coloration, used especially of minerals; IDIO-TYPE, individual genotype, set of all hereditary determinants of an individual
IS-
•	‘equal’, ‘same’
•	ISO-ZO-ic, inhabited by similar forms of life; ISO-metr-ic, pertaining to equality of measure
MEGA-, MEGAL-
•	‘large’, ‘one million’
•	HYDRO-MEGA-THERM, a plant which must have much heat and moisture to develop fully; MEGAL-OP-ic, belonging to the megalops stage, i.e. a larval stage of certain crustaceans, conspicuous by large, stalked eyes; MEGA-PHYLL-ous, having relatively large leaves
NE-
•	‘new’, ‘new and different form of’
•	GLYCO-NEO-GENE-sis, the formation of carbohydrates from substances which are not carbohydrates; NEO-PLAS-m, any new growth, usually applied to a tumour, an aberrant new growth; NEO-phobia, dread of new scenes or novelties
PATH-
•	‘disease’, ‘suffering’, ‘feeling’
•	sym-PATH-y; IDIO-PATH-ic, pertaining to a primary disease, i.e., one not the result of any other disease, but of spontaneous origin, or a disease for which no cause is known; PATHO-MIME-sis, imitation of the symptoms and signs of a disease
PEP(S)-, PEPT-
•	‘to digest’
•	PEPS-in, a substance containing a proteolytic enzyme obtained from the glandular layer of a hog’s stomach; PEPT-ic, pertaining to pepsin; pertaining to digestion, as peptic ulcer
PSEUD-
•	‘false’
•	PSEUDO-NYM; CHROMATO-PSEUD-OPS-is, colour blindness; PSEUDO-BLEPS-ia, a visual hallucination, a distorted visual image; PSEUDO-CYE-sis, phantom pregnancy
TELE-
•	‘afar’, ‘operating at a distance’
•	TELE-PHONE; TELE-therapy, treatment at a distance, e.g. by a source or radiation at a distance from the patient
ANGI-
•	‘vessel’ (blood; seed)
•	ANGIO-STOMAT-ous, narrow-mouthed (applicable to molluscs and snakes with nondistensible mouths); GAMET-ANGI-um, a structure producing sexual cells
ARACHN-
•	‘spider’ (occasionally ‘arachnoid membrane’)
•	ARACHN-ida, a large class of ARTHRO-POD-a which includes spiders and mites; ARACHN-idium, device by which a spider web is produced
ASTR-, ASTER-
•	‘star’
•	ASTER, the radiating structure surrounding the centrosome of a cell, seen at the beginning of mitosis; CYT-ASTER, the starlike system of cytoplasmic radiations surrounding the central body during mitosis; ASTER-oid, one of the small ‘planets’ between Jupiter and Mars
BLAST-
•	‘bud’, ‘germ’, ‘embryonic cell’
•	ASTRO-BLAST, a primitive cell which develops into an ASTRO-CYTE; LIPO-BLAST, a formative fat cell
CHLOR-
•	‘green’, ‘chlorine’
•	CHLORO-PLAST, a minute granule or plastid containing chlorophyll; CHLOR-osis, green sickness, a type of anemia; hypo-CHLOR-uria, diminution in the amount of chloride in the urine
LY-
•	‘to loosen’, ‘to dissolve’, ‘to break up’
•	DERMATO-LY-sis, abnormal laxation of the skin; LITHO-dia-lysis, solution of calculi in the urinary bladder; breaking up of a vesical calculus before its removal; LY-sin, a cell-dissolving substance
MENING-
•	‘membrane’
•	usually applies to the meninges, the three membranes (the dura mater, arachnoid, and pia mater) that line the skull and vertebral canal and enclose the brain and spinal cord (‘MENINX’); MENING-uria, presence or passage of membranous shreds in the urine; MENING-itis, inflammation of the membranes of the brain or spinal cord
ORCH(I)-, ORCHID-
•	‘testicle’
•	syn-ORCH-ism, partial or complete fusion of the testes within the abdomen or scrotum; CRYPT-ORCH-ism, failure of the testes to descend; ORCHID-ectomy, surgical removal of the testicles, castration
PAN-, PANT-
•	‘all’, ‘complete’
•	PAN-GAM-ic, pertaining to indiscriminate mating, or found in all seeds; PAN-GAE-a; PAN-ZOO-tic, in veterinary medicine, affecting many kinds of animals
PNEUMON-, PNEUM-
•	‘lung’
•	PNEUMO-LITH, a calculus or concretion in a lung; PARA-PNEUMO-ia, a disease presenting the symptoms of lobar pneumonia but not caused by the PNEUMO-COCC-us
AGOG(UE)-
•	‘leading’ (in scientific use, ‘inducing the flowing’, ‘expelling’)
•	CHOL-AGOGUE, agent promoting the flow of bile; GALACT-AGOGUE, an agent that promotes the flow of milk; HELMINTH-AGOGUE, agent expelling worms from the body, an ant-HELMINT-ic
ARCH(E)-
•	‘ancient’, ‘beginning’, ‘primitive’
•	ARCH-ENTER-on, embryonic alimentary cavity
DIDYM-
•	‘twin’, ‘testicle’
•	ISCHIO-DIDYM-us, twins conjoined at the hip; DIDYMO-SPORE, a two-celled spore; DIDYM-itis, same as ORCH-itis
GYR-
•	‘circle’, ‘ring’
•	GYR-oid-al, spiral in arrangement; GYR-ose, with undulating lines, sinuous; OPTHALMO-GYR-ic, pertaining to or causing movements of the eye
HIPP-
•	‘horse’
•	HIPPO-POTAM-us; HIPPO-DROME; EO-HIPP-us, a genus of small, primitive horses; HIPP-UR-ic acid, an acid found in high concentration in the urine of herbivorous animals
LEP-
•	‘to seize’ (lambanein ‘take hold of’)
•	epi-LEP-sy; NARCO-LEP-sy, a condition characterized by a transient compulsive tendency to attacks of deep sleep; NYMPHO-LEP-sy, ecstasy of an erotic type, supposed to be caused by nymphs
MACR-
•	‘large’, ‘long’
•	MACRO-CARP-ous, producing large fruit; MACRO-GLOSS-ia, enlargement of the tongue; MACR-OPS-ia, disturbance of vision in which objects seem larger than they are
MICR-
•	‘small’, ‘one millionth’
•	hypo-MICRO-GNATH-us, an individual having an abnormally small lower jaw; MICRO-LITH-iasis, formation of very minute calculi; MICRO-MEL-ia, abnormal smallness of the limbs
NARC-
•	‘stupor’, ‘make numb’
•	NARCO-LEP-sy; NARCO-tic, drug which produces a stupor, complete insensibility or sleep
PLATY(S)-
•	‘broad’, ‘flat’
•	PLATY-PUS (flat-footed); PLATY-CEPHAL-ic, characterizing a person with a flat skull
TACH(Y)-
•	‘swift’
•	TACHY-PHAG-ia, rapid eating; TACH-inidae, a large family of rapid-flying, two-winged insects