Mixing
Do laypersons understand medical terms?
Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I'm from China and I would like to ask English native speakers whether a non-medical professional understands medical terms? Examples:
- rhinorrhea
- rhinitis
- laryngoscopy
- laryngitis
- laryngostenosis
- bronchiectasis
- bronchopathy
- bronchospasm
- pneumothorax
- pneumonitis
- pulmonologist
- pulmonary or pulmonic
- dyspnea
- bradypnea
- tachypnea
- apnea
- rhinoplasty
- thoracocentesis or thoracentesis
- pulmonectomy or pneumonectomy
- tracheostomy
So do people with a high school degree readily understand the above terms?
I'm trying to compare language learning difficulties between Chinese and other languages.
I know that in China, a person with middle school or even primary school education can understand those terms in Chinese(at least the general meaning)
For my personal experience, I've been learning and using English on a daily basis for 20 years and yet I'm ashamed to say that I look completely lost in front of these words. The explanation for my ignorance of medical terms could be that I've never been or lived in any English speaking country so I'm not exposed to daily language.
What do you think?
american-english linguistics
asked 2 hours ago
osager
191239
 |Â
show 5 more comments
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I'm from China and I would like to ask English native speakers whether a non-medical professional understands medical terms? Examples:
- rhinorrhea
- rhinitis
- laryngoscopy
- laryngitis
- laryngostenosis
- bronchiectasis
- bronchopathy
- bronchospasm
- pneumothorax
- pneumonitis
- pulmonologist
- pulmonary or pulmonic
- dyspnea
- bradypnea
- tachypnea
- apnea
- rhinoplasty
- thoracocentesis or thoracentesis
- pulmonectomy or pneumonectomy
- tracheostomy
So do people with a high school degree readily understand the above terms?
I'm trying to compare language learning difficulties between Chinese and other languages.
I know that in China, a person with middle school or even primary school education can understand those terms in Chinese(at least the general meaning)
For my personal experience, I've been learning and using English on a daily basis for 20 years and yet I'm ashamed to say that I look completely lost in front of these words. The explanation for my ignorance of medical terms could be that I've never been or lived in any English speaking country so I'm not exposed to daily language.
What do you think?
american-english linguistics
asked 2 hours ago
osager
191239
I think some people might understand some of those terms. I doubt there are very many non-medical professionals who would understand all those terms. And I very much doubt a middle school Chinese person would understand all those terms either.
– Jim
2 hours ago
Or are you saying that if someone explained what each of these terms meant that they'd be able to understand the explanation? Two very different things.
– Jim
2 hours ago
1
@Mari-LouA Thank you for pointing out the errors. Btw I just learned a funny expression for this situation: Grammar Nazis. Hope this is not offensive:)
– osager
1 hour ago
1
Also note that these are the "medical" terms. There are other more common terms that a middle schooler would know for these: runny nose, difficulty breathing, lost your voice etc
– Jim
1 hour ago
1
Oh, I see...well, I was a medic (learned the roots and suffixes), but I think that most adults know that "pneumo-" relates to the lungs, and many know that "-itis" refers to inflammation, but I think that most people are familiar with the terms based on their experiences with them. For example, their children had apnea, but they wouldn't recognize "-pnea" in it unless asked to do so (IMO/E, US, SE Region)
– KannE
1 hour ago
 |Â
show 5 more comments
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I'm from China and I would like to ask English native speakers whether a non-medical professional understands medical terms? Examples:
- rhinorrhea
- rhinitis
- laryngoscopy
- laryngitis
- laryngostenosis
- bronchiectasis
- bronchopathy
- bronchospasm
- pneumothorax
- pneumonitis
- pulmonologist
- pulmonary or pulmonic
- dyspnea
- bradypnea
- tachypnea
- apnea
- rhinoplasty
- thoracocentesis or thoracentesis
- pulmonectomy or pneumonectomy
- tracheostomy
So do people with a high school degree readily understand the above terms?
I'm trying to compare language learning difficulties between Chinese and other languages.
I know that in China, a person with middle school or even primary school education can understand those terms in Chinese(at least the general meaning)
For my personal experience, I've been learning and using English on a daily basis for 20 years and yet I'm ashamed to say that I look completely lost in front of these words. The explanation for my ignorance of medical terms could be that I've never been or lived in any English speaking country so I'm not exposed to daily language.
What do you think?
american-english linguistics
asked 2 hours ago
osager
191239
I'm from China and I would like to ask English native speakers whether a non-medical professional understands medical terms? Examples:
- rhinorrhea
- rhinitis
- laryngoscopy
- laryngitis
- laryngostenosis
- bronchiectasis
- bronchopathy
- bronchospasm
- pneumothorax
- pneumonitis
- pulmonologist
- pulmonary or pulmonic
- dyspnea
- bradypnea
- tachypnea
- apnea
- rhinoplasty
- thoracocentesis or thoracentesis
- pulmonectomy or pneumonectomy
- tracheostomy
So do people with a high school degree readily understand the above terms?
I'm trying to compare language learning difficulties between Chinese and other languages.
I know that in China, a person with middle school or even primary school education can understand those terms in Chinese(at least the general meaning)
For my personal experience, I've been learning and using English on a daily basis for 20 years and yet I'm ashamed to say that I look completely lost in front of these words. The explanation for my ignorance of medical terms could be that I've never been or lived in any English speaking country so I'm not exposed to daily language.
What do you think?
american-english linguistics
american-english linguistics
asked 2 hours ago
osager
191239
asked 2 hours ago
osager
191239
edited 1 hour ago
asked 2 hours ago
osager
191239
asked 2 hours ago
osager
191239
asked 2 hours ago
osager
191239
191239
I think some people might understand some of those terms. I doubt there are very many non-medical professionals who would understand all those terms. And I very much doubt a middle school Chinese person would understand all those terms either.
– Jim
2 hours ago
Or are you saying that if someone explained what each of these terms meant that they'd be able to understand the explanation? Two very different things.
– Jim
2 hours ago
1
@Mari-LouA Thank you for pointing out the errors. Btw I just learned a funny expression for this situation: Grammar Nazis. Hope this is not offensive:)
– osager
1 hour ago
1
Also note that these are the "medical" terms. There are other more common terms that a middle schooler would know for these: runny nose, difficulty breathing, lost your voice etc
– Jim
1 hour ago
1
Oh, I see...well, I was a medic (learned the roots and suffixes), but I think that most adults know that "pneumo-" relates to the lungs, and many know that "-itis" refers to inflammation, but I think that most people are familiar with the terms based on their experiences with them. For example, their children had apnea, but they wouldn't recognize "-pnea" in it unless asked to do so (IMO/E, US, SE Region)
– KannE
1 hour ago
 |Â
show 5 more comments
I think some people might understand some of those terms. I doubt there are very many non-medical professionals who would understand all those terms. And I very much doubt a middle school Chinese person would understand all those terms either.
– Jim
2 hours ago
Or are you saying that if someone explained what each of these terms meant that they'd be able to understand the explanation? Two very different things.
– Jim
2 hours ago
1
@Mari-LouA Thank you for pointing out the errors. Btw I just learned a funny expression for this situation: Grammar Nazis. Hope this is not offensive:)
– osager
1 hour ago
1
Also note that these are the "medical" terms. There are other more common terms that a middle schooler would know for these: runny nose, difficulty breathing, lost your voice etc
– Jim
1 hour ago
1
Oh, I see...well, I was a medic (learned the roots and suffixes), but I think that most adults know that "pneumo-" relates to the lungs, and many know that "-itis" refers to inflammation, but I think that most people are familiar with the terms based on their experiences with them. For example, their children had apnea, but they wouldn't recognize "-pnea" in it unless asked to do so (IMO/E, US, SE Region)
– KannE
1 hour ago
I think some people might understand some of those terms. I doubt there are very many non-medical professionals who would understand all those terms. And I very much doubt a middle school Chinese person would understand all those terms either.
– Jim
2 hours ago
I think some people might understand some of those terms. I doubt there are very many non-medical professionals who would understand all those terms. And I very much doubt a middle school Chinese person would understand all those terms either.
– Jim
2 hours ago
Or are you saying that if someone explained what each of these terms meant that they'd be able to understand the explanation? Two very different things.
– Jim
2 hours ago
Or are you saying that if someone explained what each of these terms meant that they'd be able to understand the explanation? Two very different things.
– Jim
2 hours ago
1
1
@Mari-LouA Thank you for pointing out the errors. Btw I just learned a funny expression for this situation: Grammar Nazis. Hope this is not offensive:)
– osager
1 hour ago
@Mari-LouA Thank you for pointing out the errors. Btw I just learned a funny expression for this situation: Grammar Nazis. Hope this is not offensive:)
– osager
1 hour ago
1
1
Also note that these are the "medical" terms. There are other more common terms that a middle schooler would know for these: runny nose, difficulty breathing, lost your voice etc
– Jim
1 hour ago
Also note that these are the "medical" terms. There are other more common terms that a middle schooler would know for these: runny nose, difficulty breathing, lost your voice etc
– Jim
1 hour ago
1
1
Oh, I see...well, I was a medic (learned the roots and suffixes), but I think that most adults know that "pneumo-" relates to the lungs, and many know that "-itis" refers to inflammation, but I think that most people are familiar with the terms based on their experiences with them. For example, their children had apnea, but they wouldn't recognize "-pnea" in it unless asked to do so (IMO/E, US, SE Region)
– KannE
1 hour ago
Oh, I see...well, I was a medic (learned the roots and suffixes), but I think that most adults know that "pneumo-" relates to the lungs, and many know that "-itis" refers to inflammation, but I think that most people are familiar with the terms based on their experiences with them. For example, their children had apnea, but they wouldn't recognize "-pnea" in it unless asked to do so (IMO/E, US, SE Region)
– KannE
1 hour ago
 |Â
show 5 more comments
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
up vote
1
down vote
accepted
Translation is a difficult task. Cultures are different, situations are different, histories are different.
English is interesting because it has a mixed heritage for many medical terms. For many medical situations there is a basic English term, and there is a Latin technical term, and there might possibly be a Greek or even another Latin term. Part of a physicians training (in the US at least) is learning how to convert a patient's words into the less vague, Latinate technical terms (this is called ).
Most English speaking people don't have education in Latin or Greek, so most of those terms are etymologically opaque. (there's actually a bit of obscurantism, either suspected by the patient or intentional by the clinician). The patient may well have heard a commercial so they have an idea that 'rhinitis' is something like a cold but they will just say 'my nose is stuffed up'. But 'dyspnea'? The patient may say they have trouble breathing, but they won't recognize the term 'dyspnea' if they see what the doc is writing down.
My limited perception of Mandarin Chinese is that medical terms are in general 'transparent'. The English label 'pulmonologist' is usually rendered in Chinese as '肺科医生' which is more literally 'lung (department) doctor'. English speakers know 'lung' and 'doctor', but 'pulmono-' is just as foreign as the Chinese is to them (they may have trouble pronouncing it even).
Of your list above, the following are understandable by the general populace (who haven't experienced the problem personally):
- laryngitis - a common enough thing
- apnea - a popular notion
- rhinoplasty - elective plastic surgery is as common in the US as in China, so this is a well known synonym for 'nose job'
- tracheostomy - every other movie comedy seems to have a scene where the protagonist has to perform an emergency tracheostomy on some one choking in a restaurant because they saw how to do it on TV
All the other words on the list are technical terms. Most high-school graduates would never have seen these terms before but could guess at the meanings with some non-trivial accuracy. However these words should all be explained to non-medical readers in the US.
This is not to say that the education system in the US is not teaching students the right things. At some point, the basic English vocabulary just does not cover the explosion of technical scientific minutiae in medicine so it only takes years of higher learning (medical school) to master these terms. It's just that the culture (and the word forming tradition of English culture) lends itself to using obscure Latin and Greek rather than simpler already known Germanic roots.
(a more quantitative way to say this would be to give you their frequency in non-medical contexts. All these terms I'd expect to be well out of the top 20-30K working vocabulary of most US adults)
answered 1 hour ago
Mitch
48.9k1598205
Although in typical TV shows tracheotomy is used not tracheostomy.
– Jim
1 hour ago
Thanks for the reply. I would really love to read more on this subject: How and who in the US decides the construction of new vocabularies. It does seem to be culture related. Difficult medical terms could be a barrier to the general education of the populace(just a non-scientific guess)
– osager
1 hour ago
@Jim Formally, '-ostomy' is the opening, and '-otomy' is the procedure (the incision or cutting). But in popular culture they are commonly mixed up, being so semantically close (the things and the action to create the thing). I couldn't tell you which one typical TV shows use; it's just the word the OP used.
– Mitch
54 mins ago
So, you perform a tracheotomy then...
– Jim
50 mins ago
1
@osager most of the technical English medical vocabulary was developed, as borrowed almost directly from Latin in the 1500s/1600s (with lots of other erudite academic terminology), or coined by individual physicians over the next few centuries, and promulgated to other physicians by letters or journals. So no academy or society decided, but doctors agreed among themselves by favoring one version over another.
– Mitch
45 mins ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
up vote
2
down vote
People with some knowledge of classical languages such as Greek and Latin can usually work out what those terms mean. For example 'rhin' refers to the the nose and 'tachy' means speedy.
Biologists too should be able to make a good guess.
These days, a classical education is relatively rare and so I suspect the majority of the population would only know these words if they or a close friend or relative had suffered from such a condition.
answered 2 hours ago
chasly from UK
21k12763
Thank you for the reply. I guess the same can be said to other languages such as French or German. Anyway that does make western languages more difficult in this sense.
– osager
1 hour ago
1
@Osager: German has a mostly full set of native words for anatomy and most common diseases which are easily understood. In combination, however, they can be unwieldly: Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündung = Pankreatitis. In this respect, German is closer to Chinese.
– KarlG
1 hour ago
@KarlG Wow this is interesting! I guess that's one reason German is not a Latin language? I hear that English and German share some of the same roots. With time they do diverse in the way they construct new vocabularies. This could be what Mitch says in her/his reply that culture and situation play a role here.
– osager
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
1
down vote
accepted
Translation is a difficult task. Cultures are different, situations are different, histories are different.
English is interesting because it has a mixed heritage for many medical terms. For many medical situations there is a basic English term, and there is a Latin technical term, and there might possibly be a Greek or even another Latin term. Part of a physicians training (in the US at least) is learning how to convert a patient's words into the less vague, Latinate technical terms (this is called ).
Most English speaking people don't have education in Latin or Greek, so most of those terms are etymologically opaque. (there's actually a bit of obscurantism, either suspected by the patient or intentional by the clinician). The patient may well have heard a commercial so they have an idea that 'rhinitis' is something like a cold but they will just say 'my nose is stuffed up'. But 'dyspnea'? The patient may say they have trouble breathing, but they won't recognize the term 'dyspnea' if they see what the doc is writing down.
My limited perception of Mandarin Chinese is that medical terms are in general 'transparent'. The English label 'pulmonologist' is usually rendered in Chinese as '肺科医生' which is more literally 'lung (department) doctor'. English speakers know 'lung' and 'doctor', but 'pulmono-' is just as foreign as the Chinese is to them (they may have trouble pronouncing it even).
Of your list above, the following are understandable by the general populace (who haven't experienced the problem personally):
- laryngitis - a common enough thing
- apnea - a popular notion
- rhinoplasty - elective plastic surgery is as common in the US as in China, so this is a well known synonym for 'nose job'
- tracheostomy - every other movie comedy seems to have a scene where the protagonist has to perform an emergency tracheostomy on some one choking in a restaurant because they saw how to do it on TV
All the other words on the list are technical terms. Most high-school graduates would never have seen these terms before but could guess at the meanings with some non-trivial accuracy. However these words should all be explained to non-medical readers in the US.
This is not to say that the education system in the US is not teaching students the right things. At some point, the basic English vocabulary just does not cover the explosion of technical scientific minutiae in medicine so it only takes years of higher learning (medical school) to master these terms. It's just that the culture (and the word forming tradition of English culture) lends itself to using obscure Latin and Greek rather than simpler already known Germanic roots.
(a more quantitative way to say this would be to give you their frequency in non-medical contexts. All these terms I'd expect to be well out of the top 20-30K working vocabulary of most US adults)
answered 1 hour ago
Mitch
48.9k1598205
Although in typical TV shows tracheotomy is used not tracheostomy.
– Jim
1 hour ago
Thanks for the reply. I would really love to read more on this subject: How and who in the US decides the construction of new vocabularies. It does seem to be culture related. Difficult medical terms could be a barrier to the general education of the populace(just a non-scientific guess)
– osager
1 hour ago
@Jim Formally, '-ostomy' is the opening, and '-otomy' is the procedure (the incision or cutting). But in popular culture they are commonly mixed up, being so semantically close (the things and the action to create the thing). I couldn't tell you which one typical TV shows use; it's just the word the OP used.
– Mitch
54 mins ago
So, you perform a tracheotomy then...
– Jim
50 mins ago
1
@osager most of the technical English medical vocabulary was developed, as borrowed almost directly from Latin in the 1500s/1600s (with lots of other erudite academic terminology), or coined by individual physicians over the next few centuries, and promulgated to other physicians by letters or journals. So no academy or society decided, but doctors agreed among themselves by favoring one version over another.
– Mitch
45 mins ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
up vote
1
down vote
accepted
Translation is a difficult task. Cultures are different, situations are different, histories are different.
English is interesting because it has a mixed heritage for many medical terms. For many medical situations there is a basic English term, and there is a Latin technical term, and there might possibly be a Greek or even another Latin term. Part of a physicians training (in the US at least) is learning how to convert a patient's words into the less vague, Latinate technical terms (this is called ).
Most English speaking people don't have education in Latin or Greek, so most of those terms are etymologically opaque. (there's actually a bit of obscurantism, either suspected by the patient or intentional by the clinician). The patient may well have heard a commercial so they have an idea that 'rhinitis' is something like a cold but they will just say 'my nose is stuffed up'. But 'dyspnea'? The patient may say they have trouble breathing, but they won't recognize the term 'dyspnea' if they see what the doc is writing down.
My limited perception of Mandarin Chinese is that medical terms are in general 'transparent'. The English label 'pulmonologist' is usually rendered in Chinese as '肺科医生' which is more literally 'lung (department) doctor'. English speakers know 'lung' and 'doctor', but 'pulmono-' is just as foreign as the Chinese is to them (they may have trouble pronouncing it even).
Of your list above, the following are understandable by the general populace (who haven't experienced the problem personally):
- laryngitis - a common enough thing
- apnea - a popular notion
- rhinoplasty - elective plastic surgery is as common in the US as in China, so this is a well known synonym for 'nose job'
- tracheostomy - every other movie comedy seems to have a scene where the protagonist has to perform an emergency tracheostomy on some one choking in a restaurant because they saw how to do it on TV
All the other words on the list are technical terms. Most high-school graduates would never have seen these terms before but could guess at the meanings with some non-trivial accuracy. However these words should all be explained to non-medical readers in the US.
This is not to say that the education system in the US is not teaching students the right things. At some point, the basic English vocabulary just does not cover the explosion of technical scientific minutiae in medicine so it only takes years of higher learning (medical school) to master these terms. It's just that the culture (and the word forming tradition of English culture) lends itself to using obscure Latin and Greek rather than simpler already known Germanic roots.
(a more quantitative way to say this would be to give you their frequency in non-medical contexts. All these terms I'd expect to be well out of the top 20-30K working vocabulary of most US adults)
answered 1 hour ago
Mitch
48.9k1598205
Although in typical TV shows tracheotomy is used not tracheostomy.
– Jim
1 hour ago
Thanks for the reply. I would really love to read more on this subject: How and who in the US decides the construction of new vocabularies. It does seem to be culture related. Difficult medical terms could be a barrier to the general education of the populace(just a non-scientific guess)
– osager
1 hour ago
@Jim Formally, '-ostomy' is the opening, and '-otomy' is the procedure (the incision or cutting). But in popular culture they are commonly mixed up, being so semantically close (the things and the action to create the thing). I couldn't tell you which one typical TV shows use; it's just the word the OP used.
– Mitch
54 mins ago
So, you perform a tracheotomy then...
– Jim
50 mins ago
1
@osager most of the technical English medical vocabulary was developed, as borrowed almost directly from Latin in the 1500s/1600s (with lots of other erudite academic terminology), or coined by individual physicians over the next few centuries, and promulgated to other physicians by letters or journals. So no academy or society decided, but doctors agreed among themselves by favoring one version over another.
– Mitch
45 mins ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
up vote
1
down vote
accepted
up vote
1
down vote
accepted
Translation is a difficult task. Cultures are different, situations are different, histories are different.
English is interesting because it has a mixed heritage for many medical terms. For many medical situations there is a basic English term, and there is a Latin technical term, and there might possibly be a Greek or even another Latin term. Part of a physicians training (in the US at least) is learning how to convert a patient's words into the less vague, Latinate technical terms (this is called ).
Most English speaking people don't have education in Latin or Greek, so most of those terms are etymologically opaque. (there's actually a bit of obscurantism, either suspected by the patient or intentional by the clinician). The patient may well have heard a commercial so they have an idea that 'rhinitis' is something like a cold but they will just say 'my nose is stuffed up'. But 'dyspnea'? The patient may say they have trouble breathing, but they won't recognize the term 'dyspnea' if they see what the doc is writing down.
My limited perception of Mandarin Chinese is that medical terms are in general 'transparent'. The English label 'pulmonologist' is usually rendered in Chinese as '肺科医生' which is more literally 'lung (department) doctor'. English speakers know 'lung' and 'doctor', but 'pulmono-' is just as foreign as the Chinese is to them (they may have trouble pronouncing it even).
Of your list above, the following are understandable by the general populace (who haven't experienced the problem personally):
- laryngitis - a common enough thing
- apnea - a popular notion
- rhinoplasty - elective plastic surgery is as common in the US as in China, so this is a well known synonym for 'nose job'
- tracheostomy - every other movie comedy seems to have a scene where the protagonist has to perform an emergency tracheostomy on some one choking in a restaurant because they saw how to do it on TV
All the other words on the list are technical terms. Most high-school graduates would never have seen these terms before but could guess at the meanings with some non-trivial accuracy. However these words should all be explained to non-medical readers in the US.
This is not to say that the education system in the US is not teaching students the right things. At some point, the basic English vocabulary just does not cover the explosion of technical scientific minutiae in medicine so it only takes years of higher learning (medical school) to master these terms. It's just that the culture (and the word forming tradition of English culture) lends itself to using obscure Latin and Greek rather than simpler already known Germanic roots.
(a more quantitative way to say this would be to give you their frequency in non-medical contexts. All these terms I'd expect to be well out of the top 20-30K working vocabulary of most US adults)
answered 1 hour ago
Mitch
48.9k1598205
Translation is a difficult task. Cultures are different, situations are different, histories are different.
English is interesting because it has a mixed heritage for many medical terms. For many medical situations there is a basic English term, and there is a Latin technical term, and there might possibly be a Greek or even another Latin term. Part of a physicians training (in the US at least) is learning how to convert a patient's words into the less vague, Latinate technical terms (this is called ).
Most English speaking people don't have education in Latin or Greek, so most of those terms are etymologically opaque. (there's actually a bit of obscurantism, either suspected by the patient or intentional by the clinician). The patient may well have heard a commercial so they have an idea that 'rhinitis' is something like a cold but they will just say 'my nose is stuffed up'. But 'dyspnea'? The patient may say they have trouble breathing, but they won't recognize the term 'dyspnea' if they see what the doc is writing down.
My limited perception of Mandarin Chinese is that medical terms are in general 'transparent'. The English label 'pulmonologist' is usually rendered in Chinese as '肺科医生' which is more literally 'lung (department) doctor'. English speakers know 'lung' and 'doctor', but 'pulmono-' is just as foreign as the Chinese is to them (they may have trouble pronouncing it even).
Of your list above, the following are understandable by the general populace (who haven't experienced the problem personally):
- laryngitis - a common enough thing
- apnea - a popular notion
- rhinoplasty - elective plastic surgery is as common in the US as in China, so this is a well known synonym for 'nose job'
- tracheostomy - every other movie comedy seems to have a scene where the protagonist has to perform an emergency tracheostomy on some one choking in a restaurant because they saw how to do it on TV
All the other words on the list are technical terms. Most high-school graduates would never have seen these terms before but could guess at the meanings with some non-trivial accuracy. However these words should all be explained to non-medical readers in the US.
This is not to say that the education system in the US is not teaching students the right things. At some point, the basic English vocabulary just does not cover the explosion of technical scientific minutiae in medicine so it only takes years of higher learning (medical school) to master these terms. It's just that the culture (and the word forming tradition of English culture) lends itself to using obscure Latin and Greek rather than simpler already known Germanic roots.
(a more quantitative way to say this would be to give you their frequency in non-medical contexts. All these terms I'd expect to be well out of the top 20-30K working vocabulary of most US adults)
answered 1 hour ago
Mitch
48.9k1598205
answered 1 hour ago
Mitch
48.9k1598205
answered 1 hour ago
Mitch
48.9k1598205
answered 1 hour ago
Mitch
48.9k1598205
48.9k1598205
Although in typical TV shows tracheotomy is used not tracheostomy.
– Jim
1 hour ago
Thanks for the reply. I would really love to read more on this subject: How and who in the US decides the construction of new vocabularies. It does seem to be culture related. Difficult medical terms could be a barrier to the general education of the populace(just a non-scientific guess)
– osager
1 hour ago
@Jim Formally, '-ostomy' is the opening, and '-otomy' is the procedure (the incision or cutting). But in popular culture they are commonly mixed up, being so semantically close (the things and the action to create the thing). I couldn't tell you which one typical TV shows use; it's just the word the OP used.
– Mitch
54 mins ago
So, you perform a tracheotomy then...
– Jim
50 mins ago
1
@osager most of the technical English medical vocabulary was developed, as borrowed almost directly from Latin in the 1500s/1600s (with lots of other erudite academic terminology), or coined by individual physicians over the next few centuries, and promulgated to other physicians by letters or journals. So no academy or society decided, but doctors agreed among themselves by favoring one version over another.
– Mitch
45 mins ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
Although in typical TV shows tracheotomy is used not tracheostomy.
– Jim
1 hour ago
Thanks for the reply. I would really love to read more on this subject: How and who in the US decides the construction of new vocabularies. It does seem to be culture related. Difficult medical terms could be a barrier to the general education of the populace(just a non-scientific guess)
– osager
1 hour ago
@Jim Formally, '-ostomy' is the opening, and '-otomy' is the procedure (the incision or cutting). But in popular culture they are commonly mixed up, being so semantically close (the things and the action to create the thing). I couldn't tell you which one typical TV shows use; it's just the word the OP used.
– Mitch
54 mins ago
So, you perform a tracheotomy then...
– Jim
50 mins ago
1
@osager most of the technical English medical vocabulary was developed, as borrowed almost directly from Latin in the 1500s/1600s (with lots of other erudite academic terminology), or coined by individual physicians over the next few centuries, and promulgated to other physicians by letters or journals. So no academy or society decided, but doctors agreed among themselves by favoring one version over another.
– Mitch
45 mins ago
Although in typical TV shows tracheotomy is used not tracheostomy.
– Jim
1 hour ago
Although in typical TV shows tracheotomy is used not tracheostomy.
– Jim
1 hour ago
Thanks for the reply. I would really love to read more on this subject: How and who in the US decides the construction of new vocabularies. It does seem to be culture related. Difficult medical terms could be a barrier to the general education of the populace(just a non-scientific guess)
– osager
1 hour ago
Thanks for the reply. I would really love to read more on this subject: How and who in the US decides the construction of new vocabularies. It does seem to be culture related. Difficult medical terms could be a barrier to the general education of the populace(just a non-scientific guess)
– osager
1 hour ago
@Jim Formally, '-ostomy' is the opening, and '-otomy' is the procedure (the incision or cutting). But in popular culture they are commonly mixed up, being so semantically close (the things and the action to create the thing). I couldn't tell you which one typical TV shows use; it's just the word the OP used.
– Mitch
54 mins ago
@Jim Formally, '-ostomy' is the opening, and '-otomy' is the procedure (the incision or cutting). But in popular culture they are commonly mixed up, being so semantically close (the things and the action to create the thing). I couldn't tell you which one typical TV shows use; it's just the word the OP used.
– Mitch
54 mins ago
So, you perform a tracheotomy then...
– Jim
50 mins ago
So, you perform a tracheotomy then...
– Jim
50 mins ago
1
1
@osager most of the technical English medical vocabulary was developed, as borrowed almost directly from Latin in the 1500s/1600s (with lots of other erudite academic terminology), or coined by individual physicians over the next few centuries, and promulgated to other physicians by letters or journals. So no academy or society decided, but doctors agreed among themselves by favoring one version over another.
– Mitch
45 mins ago
@osager most of the technical English medical vocabulary was developed, as borrowed almost directly from Latin in the 1500s/1600s (with lots of other erudite academic terminology), or coined by individual physicians over the next few centuries, and promulgated to other physicians by letters or journals. So no academy or society decided, but doctors agreed among themselves by favoring one version over another.
– Mitch
45 mins ago
 |Â
show 4 more comments
up vote
2
down vote
People with some knowledge of classical languages such as Greek and Latin can usually work out what those terms mean. For example 'rhin' refers to the the nose and 'tachy' means speedy.
Biologists too should be able to make a good guess.
These days, a classical education is relatively rare and so I suspect the majority of the population would only know these words if they or a close friend or relative had suffered from such a condition.
answered 2 hours ago
chasly from UK
21k12763
Thank you for the reply. I guess the same can be said to other languages such as French or German. Anyway that does make western languages more difficult in this sense.
– osager
1 hour ago
1
@Osager: German has a mostly full set of native words for anatomy and most common diseases which are easily understood. In combination, however, they can be unwieldly: Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündung = Pankreatitis. In this respect, German is closer to Chinese.
– KarlG
1 hour ago
@KarlG Wow this is interesting! I guess that's one reason German is not a Latin language? I hear that English and German share some of the same roots. With time they do diverse in the way they construct new vocabularies. This could be what Mitch says in her/his reply that culture and situation play a role here.
– osager
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
People with some knowledge of classical languages such as Greek and Latin can usually work out what those terms mean. For example 'rhin' refers to the the nose and 'tachy' means speedy.
Biologists too should be able to make a good guess.
These days, a classical education is relatively rare and so I suspect the majority of the population would only know these words if they or a close friend or relative had suffered from such a condition.
answered 2 hours ago
chasly from UK
21k12763
Thank you for the reply. I guess the same can be said to other languages such as French or German. Anyway that does make western languages more difficult in this sense.
– osager
1 hour ago
1
@Osager: German has a mostly full set of native words for anatomy and most common diseases which are easily understood. In combination, however, they can be unwieldly: Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündung = Pankreatitis. In this respect, German is closer to Chinese.
– KarlG
1 hour ago
@KarlG Wow this is interesting! I guess that's one reason German is not a Latin language? I hear that English and German share some of the same roots. With time they do diverse in the way they construct new vocabularies. This could be what Mitch says in her/his reply that culture and situation play a role here.
– osager
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
up vote
2
down vote
People with some knowledge of classical languages such as Greek and Latin can usually work out what those terms mean. For example 'rhin' refers to the the nose and 'tachy' means speedy.
Biologists too should be able to make a good guess.
These days, a classical education is relatively rare and so I suspect the majority of the population would only know these words if they or a close friend or relative had suffered from such a condition.
answered 2 hours ago
chasly from UK
21k12763
People with some knowledge of classical languages such as Greek and Latin can usually work out what those terms mean. For example 'rhin' refers to the the nose and 'tachy' means speedy.
Biologists too should be able to make a good guess.
These days, a classical education is relatively rare and so I suspect the majority of the population would only know these words if they or a close friend or relative had suffered from such a condition.
answered 2 hours ago
chasly from UK
21k12763
answered 2 hours ago
chasly from UK
21k12763
answered 2 hours ago
chasly from UK
21k12763
answered 2 hours ago
chasly from UK
21k12763
21k12763
Thank you for the reply. I guess the same can be said to other languages such as French or German. Anyway that does make western languages more difficult in this sense.
– osager
1 hour ago
1
@Osager: German has a mostly full set of native words for anatomy and most common diseases which are easily understood. In combination, however, they can be unwieldly: Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündung = Pankreatitis. In this respect, German is closer to Chinese.
– KarlG
1 hour ago
@KarlG Wow this is interesting! I guess that's one reason German is not a Latin language? I hear that English and German share some of the same roots. With time they do diverse in the way they construct new vocabularies. This could be what Mitch says in her/his reply that culture and situation play a role here.
– osager
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
Thank you for the reply. I guess the same can be said to other languages such as French or German. Anyway that does make western languages more difficult in this sense.
– osager
1 hour ago
1
@Osager: German has a mostly full set of native words for anatomy and most common diseases which are easily understood. In combination, however, they can be unwieldly: Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündung = Pankreatitis. In this respect, German is closer to Chinese.
– KarlG
1 hour ago
@KarlG Wow this is interesting! I guess that's one reason German is not a Latin language? I hear that English and German share some of the same roots. With time they do diverse in the way they construct new vocabularies. This could be what Mitch says in her/his reply that culture and situation play a role here.
– osager
1 hour ago
Thank you for the reply. I guess the same can be said to other languages such as French or German. Anyway that does make western languages more difficult in this sense.
– osager
1 hour ago
Thank you for the reply. I guess the same can be said to other languages such as French or German. Anyway that does make western languages more difficult in this sense.
– osager
1 hour ago
1
1
@Osager: German has a mostly full set of native words for anatomy and most common diseases which are easily understood. In combination, however, they can be unwieldly: Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündung = Pankreatitis. In this respect, German is closer to Chinese.
– KarlG
1 hour ago
@Osager: German has a mostly full set of native words for anatomy and most common diseases which are easily understood. In combination, however, they can be unwieldly: Bauchspeicheldrüsenentzündung = Pankreatitis. In this respect, German is closer to Chinese.
– KarlG
1 hour ago
@KarlG Wow this is interesting! I guess that's one reason German is not a Latin language? I hear that English and German share some of the same roots. With time they do diverse in the way they construct new vocabularies. This could be what Mitch says in her/his reply that culture and situation play a role here.
– osager
1 hour ago
@KarlG Wow this is interesting! I guess that's one reason German is not a Latin language? I hear that English and German share some of the same roots. With time they do diverse in the way they construct new vocabularies. This could be what Mitch says in her/his reply that culture and situation play a role here.
– osager
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f469601%2fdo-laypersons-understand-medical-terms%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
I think some people might understand some of those terms. I doubt there are very many non-medical professionals who would understand all those terms. And I very much doubt a middle school Chinese person would understand all those terms either.
– Jim
2 hours ago
Or are you saying that if someone explained what each of these terms meant that they'd be able to understand the explanation? Two very different things.
– Jim
2 hours ago
1
@Mari-LouA Thank you for pointing out the errors. Btw I just learned a funny expression for this situation: Grammar Nazis. Hope this is not offensive:)
– osager
1 hour ago
1
Also note that these are the "medical" terms. There are other more common terms that a middle schooler would know for these: runny nose, difficulty breathing, lost your voice etc
– Jim
1 hour ago
1
Oh, I see...well, I was a medic (learned the roots and suffixes), but I think that most adults know that "pneumo-" relates to the lungs, and many know that "-itis" refers to inflammation, but I think that most people are familiar with the terms based on their experiences with them. For example, their children had apnea, but they wouldn't recognize "-pnea" in it unless asked to do so (IMO/E, US, SE Region)
– KannE
1 hour ago