A Thesaurus of Medical Word Roots
By (author) Horace Gerald Danner
Publication date:
15 August 2013Length of book:
646 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressDimensions:
285x225mm9x11"
ISBN-13: 9780810891548
Dr. Horace Gerald Danner’s A Thesaurus of Medical Word Roots is a compendium of the most-used word roots of the medical and health-care professions. All word roots are listed alphabetically, along with the Greek or Latin words from which they derive, together with the roots’ original meanings. If the current meaning of an individual root differs from the original meaning, that is listed in a separate column.
In the examples column, the words which contain the root are then listed, starting with their prefixes. For example, esthesia, which means “feeling,” has as its prefixed roots alloesthesia, anesthesia, and dysesthesia. The listing then switches to words where the root itself forms the beginning, such as esthesiogenesis or esthesioneuroblastoma. These root-starting terms then are followed by words where the root falls in the middle or the end, as in acanthesthesia, cryesthesia, or osmesthesia. In this manner, A Thesaurus of Medical Word Roots places the word in as many word families as there are elements in the word.
This work will interest not only medical practitioners but linguists and philologists and anyone interested in the etymological aspects of medical terminology.
In the examples column, the words which contain the root are then listed, starting with their prefixes. For example, esthesia, which means “feeling,” has as its prefixed roots alloesthesia, anesthesia, and dysesthesia. The listing then switches to words where the root itself forms the beginning, such as esthesiogenesis or esthesioneuroblastoma. These root-starting terms then are followed by words where the root falls in the middle or the end, as in acanthesthesia, cryesthesia, or osmesthesia. In this manner, A Thesaurus of Medical Word Roots places the word in as many word families as there are elements in the word.
This work will interest not only medical practitioners but linguists and philologists and anyone interested in the etymological aspects of medical terminology.
Danner (independent scholar) offers a thesaurus that is neither medical dictionary nor textbook on medical terminology; rather, it defines and explains the expansive vocabulary of the profession from the roots of medical terms. The thesaurus lists word roots alphabetically and identifies for each the source language (primarily Greek or Latin), meaning, and words that use the root as an independent, prefixed, leading, or trailing element. Whereas the analysis in William Haubrich's well-regarded Medical Meanings: A Glossary of Word Origins (2nd ed., CH, Oct'97, 35-0667) proceeds from words to roots and offers concise essays, Danner's thesaurus moves from roots to words with glosses and occasional comments. His approach brings together words with common elements to aid in comparison, association, and memorization. The thesaurus would make an excellent companion to Dunmore and Fleischer's Medical Terminology, by C. Walker-Esbaugh, L. H. McCarthy, and R. A. Sparks (3rd ed., 2004), or other textbooks that employ word analysis and etymology to teach vocabulary. For those who love words and want to learn more, browsing the thesaurus is interesting and informative. Included are English-to-root, prefix, and suffix indexes. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic medical libraries and libraries supporting semantic programs; lower-level undergraduates and above, and general readers.