...But hold on. Stop for a moment. Before we can hop into the more fun aspects of the medical world, like anatomy and physiology, we first have to step back and understand a few key points about where it all originated; or in other words, medical terminology. Now, I know that terminology may not sound like the most fun thing to learn, but it's absolutely crucial to fully understanding and getting the hang of the medical world. Medical terminology is like a sort of "history class." For many people, it may be tedious to grasp all of the "dates" and "times", but at the same time, it's a fundamental thing that you must know in order to get why and how things came about. Instead of having to rely solely on your memorization for those "big" and "difficult" words, like neonatology (the study of babies at birth) and integumentary (pertaining to the skin), you can simply break down the words into their smaller word parts, define those word parts separately, and "glue" them together to create the definition of the bigger word.
For example, let's take the medical word premenstrual. "Premenstrual" can be broken down into three word parts, the prefix, or word beginning, the suffix, or word ending, and the combining form, or the word's basic "foundation". To break it down even more clearly, a prefix and a suffix are both word parts that you add to other words in order to enhance or add to their meanings. For instance, in the medical word "premenstrual," the prefix is "pre-". (Ignore the fact that the prefix just so happens to be "pre-". The prefix can be a variety of other words as well.) The prefix "pre-" can mean "before" and "in front." Yes, it has two meanings. Prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms can have more than one meaning, just like the way that many of our English words can have more than one meaning.
Now that we know what the prefix means, let's move on to the suffix. The suffix in the word "premenstrual" is "-al." Kind of a short word, isn't it? It means "pertaining to."
And finally, let's move on to the combining form. The combining form in this case is "menstru/o-".
...Why did I add the "o" at the end? It's because all combining forms have a vowel at the end that acts as a "connector" to connect it to certain suffixes. In this case, with "menstru," it happens to be an "o." Each combining form has its own combining vowel, but it doesn't have to be "o". You can always tell if a word is a combining form because it will be written with a forward slash and a combining vowel, like this:
combining form/combining vowel-
Here are a few examples:
derm/o- (means "skin")
chron/o- (means "time")
pulmon/o- (means "lung")
Another thing about combining forms is that you will see them, many times, written with and without their combining vowels in certain words. Whether or not the combining vowel is used depends on the word (or, to be more specific, the suffix in the word).
So let's go back to our word "premenstrual". "Menstru/o-" means "monthly discharge of blood". Therefore, if we combine all three of the words -- "pre-", "-al", and "menstru/o-" -- we get the definition, "pertaining to before the monthly discharge of blood."
Simple right? But there are a few more important rules we need to follow. Here are the rules:
- When defining a medical term by its prefix(s), suffix, and combining form(s), you will always put the definition of the suffix first, followed by the definition of the prefix, and then the definition of the combining form.
- When defining a medical term that has only a combining form and a suffix, you will still put the definition of the suffix first, and then follow that with the definition of the combining form.
Another example is the word "integumentary". The combining form in this word is "integument/o-", which means "skin". The suffix is "-ary", which means "pertaining to". Put them together, starting with the suffix, and you get, "pertaining to the skin". Therefore, something that is "integumentary" pertains to the skin.
Do you have the hang of it now? I hope so. But before you become too comfortable, let me go and throw you for yet another loop.
Let's use the word "neonatology." The combining form in this word is "nat/o-", which means "birth." However, this word has a second combining form, the word "ne/o-", which means "new." Confused? Don't allow yourself to be. There are many medical words that have more than one combining form. In fact, there are also many medical words that have more than one prefix and suffix as well. You won't be able to know whether a word is a prefix, suffix, or combining form simply by looking at the original word, though, which is why you need to learn everything beforehand so it's much easier.
Hopefully you understand everything I've said so far. If not, I would highly suggest that you review this page or ask me a question to get a better understanding. Everything from this point on will be building on this first lesson, so not understanding this will hinder you from understanding practically everything else.
To end this lesson, let me finish defining the word "neonatology." I told you above that "ne/o-" means "new" and "nat/o-" means birth. The suffix in this word is "-logy", which means "the study of". Therefore, "neonatology" means "the study of new birth", or to be more specific, "the study of new [baby] birth."
If you've been writing this all down, or at least memorizing it all, then you should be happy to know that you've already learned 15 words in medical terminology:
- neonatology
- integumentary
- premenstrual
- pre-
- -al
- menstru/o-
- derm/o-
- chron/o-
- pulmon/o-
- integument/o-
- -ary
- nat/o-
- ne/o-
- -logy
- pulmonology
I hope this lesson was of some help to you. In the next lesson, I will be going over several more medical terms to get you completely acquainted with it. Good luck, and good studying.
