Scientific Words: Their
Structure and Meaning
INTRODUCTION
A ZOOLOGIST has
described Human as: 'metazoan,
triphoblastic, chordate, vertebrate, pentadactyle, mammalian, eutherian,
primate'.
A chemist has written
that: 'in the formation of
mono-substitution products of benzoic acid the halogen takes up the
meta-position with respect to the carboxyl'.
From a technical
dictionary we read that a carbuncle is: 'a
circumscribed staphylococcal infection of the subcutaneous tissues'.
Such passages as these
are probably unintelligible to the non scientist and might even puzzle a scientist if he
specialised in a totally different field. They are, however, sensible
statements of certain scientific facts. Their difficulty lies in the concepts
which are involved - concepts with which the reader may not be familiar - and
also in the technical terms which are used
Why do scientists use
such unfamiliar, and apparently difficult, words? Why do they need a special
vocabulary of their own?
What is the nature of
the specialised words of science? What are their origins? Are they just
fanciful inventions or have they been sensibly and logically constructed?
Are these words
necessarily unintelligible to all but the scientific expert or can an ordinary
educated person, who knows a little science, make some sense of them and gain
at least a general idea of their meanings?
The Purpose and Nature
of Scientific Words
The development of an
appropriate vocabulary is essential to the development of any subject. Words
are the elements of language; language is the vehicle of ideas. By silent
language thoughts are developed in the mind, and by written or spoken language
thoughts are communicated to others.
It is obvious that a
scientist must have names by which to identify and refer to the various
chemical substances, minerals, plants, animals, structural units, instruments,
etc., with which he deals. He/she must have suitable adjectives for describing
these things and suitable verbs for defining their behaviour.
He also needs suitable
names by which to identify the various abstractions with which he deals -
processes, states, qualities, relationships, and so on. Thus, after Faraday had
investigated the passage of electric currents through different solutions and noted
the resulting liberation of chemical substances, the term electrolysis was
invented. This one word was a kind of shorthand symbol for the process; it
'pinned down' the process and conveniently embraced its many aspects. From then
on it was possible to think about the process and to talk about it to others.
Similarly, the single term symbiosis conveniently summarises a
biological state.
Many scientific words
are of this kind. Without the name (or technical term) a concept remains vague
and ill-defined; the scientist is hindered in his mental processes, in his
recording of what he thinks and does, and in his communication with others.
The meanings of many
ordinary words of our language are not single and precise. Although the
original, basic meanings may be clear, the words have acquired a range of
meanings over the years. Thus the familiar word fair has somewhat
different meanings when used to describe the weather, a person's hair, an
action or decision, or a boy's performance at school. Hence a scientist avoids
the ordinary words of the language; he prefers his own words. These words can
then be rigorously defined and given the necessary precision of meaning.
The use of words which
are 'set apart' from everyday life also enables the scientist to avoid evoking
irrelevant and distorting associations. Some ordinary words convey more than
their literal meanings; they evoke further images, emotions and reactions on
the part of the hearer or reader. (Thus red, basically a word denoting a
certain colour, may conjure up thoughts and feelings relating to danger, to
blood, or to a particular political outlook.) The specialised words of science,
if used in their proper contexts, are largely free from distorting
associations. It is interesting to note that when a scientific term, originally
well-defined, becomes a word of ordinary speech, it usually suffers a widening
of meaning and acquires a number of associations. Thus criticism (as well as
sulphuric acid) may be vitriolic, a man may be electrified into
action, and people may claim to be allergic to all sorts of things and
conditions. The word atomic, whose meaning is quite clear to the
scientist, may conjure up in the public mind a picture of widespread
destruction or of unlimited power.
In addition to precision
of meaning and freedom from associations, most scientific words have a third
quality: by their form and structure they reveal something of their meanings.
Many scientific words are logically built up from simpler word-elements
(usually of Greek or Latin origin) and the general meaning of the whole can be
inferred from an understanding of the parts. Some terms, in fact, are
self-explanatory if the Latin and Greek roots are known; they have only to be
'translated' for their meanings to become apparent.
Thus a quadrilateral is
clearly a four-sided figure, entomology is the study of insects, gastrectomy
is the cutting out of the stomach (or part of it). In the case of a large
number of words the full or precise meaning may not be directly disclosed but
the general meaning is apparent and the word is seen to 'make sense'. Thus cyanosis
indicates a state (possibly a morbid state) of blueness; it is a sensible
word to use to denote the blue condition of the skin which results from
insufficient oxygen in the blood. A xerophyte (literally "a dry
plant") is one which is adapted for living in very dry conditions; a hydrophyte
is one which lives on the surface of, or submerged in, water. A polymer consists
of "many parts"; the term is an appropriate one for a giant molecule which
is built up from a large number of simple units.
Scientific language, to
be efficient, must be universally intelligible. The classical languages, Latin
and Greek, are so fundamental to the civilised world that words constructed
from elements of these languages are readily understood the world over. (Even
if scientists know little of the classical languages, they can easily learn to
'translate' the scientific terms which they may meet.) Most scientific terms
are effectively international.
Sources of Scientific
Words
Scientific words in
English may conveniently be divided, from the standpoint of their origins, into
three groups:
- those taken from the ordinary English vocabulary;
- those taken virtually unchanged from another
language;
- those which have been invented.
The third group is by
far the largest.
The scientist has
occasionally taken ordinary English words and endowed them with specialised
meanings. Energy, work, power, salt, base, fruit are examples of such
words. They are unsatisfactory as scientific terms because they lack the
essential qualities which we have described. Although the scientist may give
them precise meanings, they are liable to be interpreted more loosely (or even
differently) by the non-scientist.
The English language
contains a number of words which have been taken from another language with
little or no change of spelling. Amongst them are morgue, souvenir, trek,
marmalade and agenda. Practically all the scientific words of this
kind have been taken from Latin or Greek. As examples of Latin words we may
note axis, fulcrum, larva, radius, locus, nimbus, cortex. Many parts of
the human body, e.g. cerebrum, pelvis, cornea, have Latin names. There
are fewer unaltered Greek words - thorax, stigma, iris, helix are examples
- but it should be noted that many terms adopted in Latin form, e.g. trachea,
bronchus, phylum, were themselves based on Greek. Many of the Greek or
Latin terms have retained their original meanings but in some cases the
meanings have been restricted and rendered more precise.
The largest group of
scientific words are those which have been invented. The advance of science
during the last few centuries has been so rapid and so extensive that no
language has been capable of providing, ready-made, all the words which were
required. Further, the classical languages do not contain words appropriate to
modern discoveries, inventions and concepts. (There is no Latin word, for
example, for photography!) Hence the scientist has had to invent new words for
his own purposes.
It is very rare for a
scientist to make up a word 'out of his head'; the term ester for a
compound formed by the interaction of an alcohol and an organic acid was
perhaps such an invention. A small but interesting group of terms comprises
those based on proper names. In the naming of the chemical elements recourse
has been made to the names of places (as in polonium, ytterbium), of
gods and goddesses (as in thorium, vanadium), of planets and asteroids
(as in uranium, cerium), and of scientists themselves (as in curium,
gadolinium). Scientists' names have also been used to provide the names of
units (e.g. watt, volt, gauss, joule) and hence the names of measuring
instruments (e.g. voltmeter). Among the other terms based on the names
of scientists are daltonism, nicotine, bakelite and mendelism. A
number of plants, e.g. fuchsia, dahlia are named after botanists.
In his task of inventing
new terms, however, the scientist has usually turned to the classical languages
for his raw material. He has taken 'bits and pieces' - roots, prefixes,
suffixes - from these languages and joined them together to form the terms he
needed. Thus, when he needed a general name for animals such as snails and
slugs which apparently walk on their stomachs, he took the Greek roots gast(e)ro-
(stomach) and -pod (foot) and formed the new word gastropod. When
he wanted a word to describe a speed greater than that of sound he took the
Latin prefix super- (above, beyond) and the Latin root son- (sound)
and coined the adjective supersonic. Thousands of scientific words have
been built up from classical word-elements in this way.
The Formation of
Scientific Words from Classical Word-elements
Despite the enormous
size of the modern vocabulary of science, the basic elements from which the
words have been constructed are comparatively few. (The greater part of the
vocabulary of medicine and anatomy - perhaps 30,000 words - has been
constructed by the use of only about 150 standard word-elements and the names
of the parts of the body.) Many elements appear in a range of words distributed
among a number of different sciences. Thus the element pter- (Gk. pteron,
wing) appears in the names of many sub-classes of insects (e.g. Diptera,
Lepidoptera), of certain types of aircraft (e.g. helicopter) of a
group of chemical substances (e.g. methopterin) and in the name of a
mesozoic flying reptile (Pterodactyl).
As will be seen from the
Glossary, the word-elements are generally used in forms which are specially
adapted to word-building. Thus the Greek noun nephros (kidney) is used
in the combining-form nephro- (or nephr- before a vowel). Let us
take this root and look at the range of words which have been built up from it.
We may suffer from nephropathy (disease of the kidney), nephralgia (pain
in the kidney), nephritis (inflammation of the kidney) or nephroptosis
(a dropping of the kidney). We may undergo the surgical operations of nephrotomy
(a cutting of the kidney), nephrectomy (a cutting out), nephrorrhaphy
(a sewing up) or nephropexy (a fixing in place). Yet more terms will
be found in a 'medical dictionary. We might like to invent a few more terms
ourselves. The kidney can suffer the processes of nephrothermolysis (being
cooked) and nephrophagy (being eaten)! The root has also been used in
forming the names of excretory structures in certain lower animals. In an
Earthworm, for example, each normal segment contains a pair of excretory organs
which have been called the nephridia (literally, the little kidneys).
Prefixes which indicate
degree, position or number are of particular value in word-building. Thus we
may suffer from hyperpiesis (high blood pressure) or from hypopiesis (low
blood pressure), the two terms being formed by the addition of contrasting
prefixes to the same root. Similarly, the ectoplasm is the thin protoplasm
near the outside of a cell and the endoplasm is the denser protoplasm
well within the cell. The Apoda have no legs, the Decapoda have
ten, and the Myriapoda have many. Radio valves may be classified as diodes
(two electrodes), triodes (three electrodes) . . . pentodes (five
electrodes) . . . octodes (eight electrodes), and so on.
Sometimes both Greek and
Latin elements are combined in the same word. Television is a well-known
example; the prefix tele(from afar) is Greek and the root vis-
(seeing) is Latin. (The 'all-Greek' word teleorama would have been more
satisfying to the purists but it is unlikely to be adopted.) The formation of
'hybrid' words of this kind may be considered objectionable if 'pure'
alternatives are readily available and equally convenient. Thus the term odoriphore*
is a needless hybrid; the 'all-Greek' term osmophore would serve
just as well. There appears to be no justification for the invention of the
hybrid word pluviometer (rain gauge) when two all-Greek terms, hyetometer
and ombrometer, are available. And chemists still seem not to have
made up their minds whether to use Latin or Greek prefixes of number before the
Latin root -valent.
Undoubtedly some hybrids
have been formed because of thoughtlessness or ignorance, but many have been
formed because certain prefixes and suffixes have become well known and have
been found to be convenient. Thus the familiar Greek root -meter (measurer)
has been added to all sorts of stems, e.g. to a Latin stem in audiometer and
to an English stem in weatherometer. (Note the insertion of the o before
-meter; in all-Greek terms an o ' normally arises as the ending
of the stem.) The Greek element -logy (often regarded as -ology) is
now freely added to stems of ' various kinds and origins; the three common
medical elements -itis (inflammation), -oma (growth, tumour) and -osis
(morbid state) are not infrequently added to Latin stems (e.g. as in gingivitis,
fibroma, ' and silicosis). Certain prefixes of classical origin, e.g. re-,
pre-, micro-, sub-, tele-, are still 'living' and are freely used in
combination with words of any origin, e.g. in re-oxidise, pre-Cambrian,
microfilm, substandard and telecommunication.
The Analysis and
Interpretation of Scientific Words
Not many people are in
the position of needing to invent new scientific words. A scientist may need to
do so occasionally, particularly if he is researching in a new field. Sometimes
a manufacturer invents a pseudo-scientific name (often a verbal monstrosity)
for his products, apparently to make them seem more attractive. The layman is
never called upon to invent scientific words.
All kinds of people,
however, may find themselves needing to interpret the meanings of scientific
words. The scientist may meet new terms invented by other scientists; he may
meet words which are unfamiliar to him because they are in specialised fields
outside his own. The student frequently meets words which are strange to him
but which he must learn and understand in order to progress in his studies.
And, in these modern times, the layman meets scientific words in his
newspapers, in advertisements, and through television.
Words which are pure
Latin or pure Greek, and which cannot be broken down into simpler parts, do not
readily disclose their meanings; one either knows the meanings or one does not.
Thus one cannot infer the meaning of tibia, thallus, or soma merely
from the spelling. It has been shown, however, that the majority of scientific
words have been constructed from simpler word- elements and thus, from an
understanding of the parts, one may deduce the meaning (or at least the general
sense) of the whole. This is, indeed, one of the virtues of scientific words.
As has already been
pointed out, the meanings of a large number of scientific words are directly
revealed by simple translation. Conchology is obviously the study of
shells, a lignicolous fungus is clearly one which lives on wood, and
what else can hypodermic mean than under (or below) the skin? Antiseptic,
microphyllous, anemometer, centripetal, pentadactyl, hyperglycaemia are
among the thousands of scientific words whose meanings may be readily deduced
by simple analysis. It is possible that by simple translation one might
occasionally miss some subtle shade of meaning or of application but one would
nevertheless gain a useful idea of what the words denote.
There are thousands of
other words, of course, whose full meanings cannot be determined by simple deduction.
Thus pericardium clearly means "round the heart", but we
cannot deduce exactly what it is; an electrometer is apparently an
instrument for measuring electricity but we cannot tell what property of
electricity it measures. The word isotope tells us no more than that
'it' is in the same place as something else. The translation of the names given
to plants and animals is often of no help in identification; we cannot
recognise Myosotis by translating the name as "mouse ear" nor
do we know what Oligochaeta are even if we deduce that they have
"few bristles".
The word photometer readily
breaks down into the elements photo- (light) and -meter (a
measurer); it is evidently the name of an instrument for measuring some quality
(e.g. intensity) of light. The word geomorphology breaks down into the
elements geo (Earth), morpho- (form, shape) and -logy (which
may be interpreted as 'the study of'); geomorphology is thus the study of the
shape of the Earth (actually of the origin and nature of its surface shape and
features). The term gastromyotomy breaks down into its elements gastro-
(stomach), myo- (muscle) and -tomy (cutting); we deduce that
gastromyotomy is the surgical cutting of the muscles of the stomach. Similarly,
we deduce that and that arteriosclerosis is a hardening of the arteries.
We understand why lines on a map passing through places which have the same
temperature are called isotherms (iso-, equal, therm-, heat) and
so deduce the meanings of isobar and similar terms. Having learned that
the element cyto- indicates a cell, we can make sense of such terms as cyto'logy,
cyto'genesis and cyto'lysis.
Let us take one example
to illustrate how a long chemical name may be interpreted. What can be made of
the name polytetrafluoroethylene? As is often useful when analysing
chemical names, we work from right to left. We start with ethylene, the
name of a well-known hydrocarbon (hydrogen-carbon compound) with the chemical
formula C2H4. Tetra-fluoro- indicates that four
fluorine atoms are taking the place of four (in this case all) hydrogen atoms
in the molecule. So we reach a compound which may be represented by the formula
C2F4. The prefix poly- in chemical names indicates
that a giant molecule, as in a 'plastic', has been built up by the joining
together of a large number of simple units.
Polytetrafluoroethylene
is, in fact, a 'plastic' substance built up from C2F4
units, known commercially as P.T.F.E. or Teflon.
We live in a scientific
age; an understanding of science is at least as necessary to the make-up of an
educated person as a knowledge of the arts. More and more people need to
understand the words of science. This does not mean that traditional courses of
Latin and Greek should therefore form a part of everyone's education but it
indicates the desirability of teaching the more important roots which enter into
the formation of English, and especially scientific, words.
(from Scientific
words: Their structure and meaning, by W. E. Flood, Oldbourne, 1960)
ACTIVITY.
Say the meaning of these words:
cardiopathology,
epicenter,
myoma,
osteopathy,
hydrofobic molecule,
hydrophillic substance,
seismograph,
hepatitis,
traumatology,
osteolysis,
osteoarthritis,
eukaryotic cell,
neurology,
rhinitis,
gastroenteritis,
antiseptic,
anemometer,
pentadactyl,
hyperglycaemia,
geomorphology,
pericardium,
isotope,
isotherm,
cytology,
arteriosclerosis.
This map shows the parts of the body next to the areas of the brain that
process their sense of touch. The eyes and hands have a lot of space
devoted to them; other parts, not so much.
