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Although it may seem technical and therefore "mod- ern" in origin to the lay person, most medical vocabu- lary derives from a language 3,000 years old: classical Greek.

The basis for medical terminology, however, has remained the same. The majority of medical terms are based in the Latin or Greek language.

Thus, Latin clinical terminology is the result of the centuries-old history of world medical development, which provides a neutral ground for medical professionals from different countries. Moreover, Latin and latinized Greek are productive tools for coining new terms.

Abstract: Long before English became the lingua franca of science, Latin was the dominant language of medicine. In general, Greek and Latin shaped the conventions of scientific,primarily medical, writing for over 2000 years.

It should be noted that most Latin and latinized Greek terms have been used for over 2000 years. As a result, the use of Latin provides the intellectual and terminological continuity of Western medicine that is rooted in ancient times.

Medical word origins are usually from the Greek and Latin languages. It is not necessary to study these languages. One can determine the literal meaning of an unfamiliar term by knowing the meaning of the word parts.

Medical terminology often uses words created using prefixes and suffixes in Latin and Ancient Greek. In medicine, their meanings, and their etymology, are informed by the language of origin. Prefixes and suffixes, primarily in Greek—but also in Latin, have a droppable -o-.

[Gr. - kinēsia, fr. kinēsis, movement] Suffix meaning motion, movement, or sickness caused by motion.