Universal Suffixes

This is Unit Two of Medical Terminology, Part Two: the suffixes that name what is done to a structure, rather than the ones naming what has gone wrong with it. Part One numbered the condition suffixes — inflammation, hardening, narrowing, rupture — and closed on the three surgical endings that remove a structure, cut into it, or leave an opening in it. This part begins where that surgical run stopped, and it stays on procedures for a while. Four more operative suffixes open it. One rebuilds a structure, one anchors a structure that has moved, one fuses two of them together, and one punctures a structure to draw fluid off. Four different operations, four suffixes, and none of them repeats the work of another. Then the unit performs one division three separate times. A procedure and the instrument that carries it out take different suffixes, and the distance between them is a letter or two. Scopy is looking and scope is what looks. Metry is measuring and meter is what measures. Graphy, gram and graph split a recording three ways: the process, the record it produces, and the machine. After that come the endings that turn a root into an adjective. Seven suffixes all mean pertaining to, and they are not interchangeable — each root takes one of them by convention, and assembling the wrong one yields a term with the right meaning that is not a word. Two worked problems and a capstone of eight decoded terms close the unit. By the end you will be able to do five things. One: read the four operative suffixes, and say what each does that the other three do not. Two: split a procedure from the instrument that performs it, in viewing and in measuring. Three: tell the recording process from the record and from the recording machine. Four: name treatment, field and specialist, and pick the adjective ending a root takes. Five: choose among the three surgical suffixes, and decode a term from its suffix backwards.

Four entries, and they continue a run Part One began. Removal, incision and the creation of a permanent opening were numbered there. These four add repair, fixation, fusion and puncture, so the unit's surgical vocabulary reaches seven endings in all. The pair worth holding apart is fixation against fusion. One anchors a single structure that has drifted out of position; the other binds two structures permanently together, which is a different operation with a different result.

Rebuilding a structure.

MedTerm 0091 -plasty: Surgical Repair

The suffix plasty names surgical repair or reconstruction of the structure its root identifies. Rhinoplasty is surgical repair of the nose. Plasty rebuilds a structure — it does not remove one, and it does not merely open one, which places it beside the three surgical suffixes Part One numbered rather than among them.

Anchoring what has moved.

MedTerm 0092 -pexy: Surgical Fixation

The suffix pexy names surgical fixation of the structure its root identifies into its correct position. Nephropexy is surgical fixation of a displaced kidney. Pexy anchors a structure that has moved rather than repairing damage to it, which is why it answers the drooping suffix Part One gave, ptosis, and not the repair suffix above it.

Fusing two structures.

MedTerm 0093 -desis: Surgical Fusion

The suffix desis names surgical binding or fusion of the structure its root identifies. Arthrodesis is surgical fusion of a joint. Desis joins two structures permanently where pexy anchors one structure in its place, so a term ending in desis reports that something has been made continuous, not that something has been held still.

Puncturing to draw fluid.

MedTerm 0094 -centesis: Surgical Puncture

The suffix centesis names a surgical puncture made to withdraw fluid from the structure its root identifies. Thoracentesis is surgical puncture of the chest cavity to remove fluid. Centesis draws fluid out, and it is a puncture rather than an incision — the incision suffix Part One numbered opens a structure and takes nothing from it.

Two entries with one letter between them. The first names the act of examining a structure visually; the second names the instrument that does the examining. The course draws this same line twice more before the unit ends, once on measurement and once on recording, so it is worth taking as a habit rather than as a fact about these two particular words. The longer ending is the procedure, and the shorter one is the object.

Looking inside a structure.

MedTerm 0095 -scopy: Visual Examination

The suffix scopy names visual examination of the structure its root identifies. Colonoscopy is visual examination of the colon. Scopy is the act of looking, and the instrument doing the looking carries a separate suffix — one letter shorter, and the next entry in the unit. The act and the object are named apart.

The instrument that looks.

MedTerm 0096 -scope: Instrument for Viewing

The suffix scope names the instrument used to examine the structure its root identifies. A colonoscope is the instrument used to view the colon. Scopy is what is done and scope is what does it, and one letter separates them — which means a misread ending turns a procedure into a piece of equipment.

Three entries, and this is the unit's most confusable cluster. Recording an image is not one thing but three: a process someone performs, a record that process produces, and a machine that produces it. Three suffixes built on the same root carry those three, and they differ from one another by two or three letters. A worked problem later in the unit runs all of them on a single term, because this is the cluster a reader is likeliest to collapse into one.

The process of recording.

MedTerm 0097 -graphy: Process of Recording

The suffix graphy names the process of recording an image of the structure its root identifies. Radiography is the process of making an x-ray image. Graphy is the process, and two further suffixes on the same root name the record that process produces and the instrument producing it. Three suffixes, three different things.

The record produced.

MedTerm 0098 -gram: The Record

The suffix gram names the record or image produced, of the structure its root identifies. An electrocardiogram is the record of the heart's electrical activity. A gram is the finished product — the thing a clinician reads. It is not the act that made it, and it is not the machine that made it.

The machine that records.

MedTerm 0099 -graph: The Instrument

The suffix graph names the instrument that produces the record of the structure its root identifies. An electrocardiograph is the machine that produces the tracing. Graph is the machine, gram is the paper, graphy is the process — three endings differing by two or three letters, naming three things that cannot substitute for one another.

Two entries dividing exactly the way the viewing pair divided. One names the act of measuring a quantity, the other names the instrument that takes the measurement. What separates this pair from the recording cluster is not the act but the result: a measurement ends in a number, and a recording ends in an image. Two entries here, and by now the pattern is established rather than announced. The book states the parallel outright in the second of them, which is the clearest signal in the unit that these are not words to be learned one at a time.

The act of measuring.

MedTerm 0100 -metry: Measurement

The suffix metry names the act or process of measuring what its root identifies. Spirometry is the measurement of breathing volume. Metry measures a quantity where graphy records an image, so the two describe different results as well as different acts — one ends in a number, and the other ends in a picture.

The measuring instrument.

MedTerm 0101 -meter: Measuring Instrument

The suffix meter names the instrument that measures what its root identifies. A thermometer is the instrument that measures temperature. Metry and meter divide the same way scopy and scope do, which is the second appearance of one pattern — the process takes the longer ending, and the instrument takes the shorter one.

Three entries leaving the operating room. The first names treatment, and it takes its root from the means of treatment rather than from whatever is being treated, which reverses the habit every entry above it has built. The other two are a pair: one names a field of study and the other names the person practising it, and three added letters carry that entire difference between them.

Treatment by some means.

MedTerm 0102 -therapy: Treatment

The suffix therapy names treatment by the means its root identifies. Chemotherapy is treatment by chemical agents. The root here names how treatment is given rather than what is being treated, which reverses the habit the rest of the unit builds — in most of these terms the root names the structure involved.

The field of study.

MedTerm 0103 -logy: Study Of

The suffix logy names the study or science of what its root identifies. Cardiology is the study of the heart. Logy names the field, and a separate suffix names the person practising it. That second suffix is the next entry, and the two are among the most frequently exchanged endings in the language.

The person who practises it.

MedTerm 0104 -logist: Specialist

The suffix logist names the specialist who studies or treats what its root identifies. A cardiologist is a physician specialising in the heart. Logy is the field and logist is the person, and the three added letters carry that whole difference — a line naming one where it means the other has named the wrong thing.

Three entries about the endings that turn a root into an adjective. The first lists seven suffixes that all mean the same thing. The second is the error those seven produce, and the course gives it its own number rather than a footnote, because the failure is specific and repeatable. The third is a separate adjective ending, and what it claims is likeness rather than identity, which is a weaker claim than it looks.

Seven endings, one meaning.

MedTerm 0105 Suffixes Meaning "Pertaining To"

Several suffixes all mean pertaining to: al, ic, ar, ary, eal, ous, and ac. Cardiac, pulmonary and neural all mean pertaining to the structure their root names. These are not interchangeable. Each root takes one of them by convention, and that pairing is learned with the term rather than derived from any rule.

The error those seven produce.

MedTerm 0106 Error: Choosing the Wrong "Pertaining To" Suffix

Substituting one of those seven endings for another produces a term that carries the right meaning and is not a word. The adjective for the heart is cardiac; cardial and cardious are not terms. Where the adjective form is uncertain, the safe move is looking the term up rather than building it from its parts.

Resembling, without being.

MedTerm 0107 -oid: Resembling

The suffix oid describes something resembling, but not identical to, what its root identifies. A lipoid substance resembles fat. Oid signals likeness, so it always leaves open that the thing described is something else — the ending makes a comparison rather than an identification, and it never closes the question.

Two entries closing the suffix list, and both are wider than anything above them. One names a condition or state; the other names a condition, process or state. Neither carries a claim of disease on its own. What makes a term built on either of them abnormal is the root or the prefix standing in front of it, and never the ending itself — which is worth knowing before a body-system unit starts using both heavily.

A condition or state.

MedTerm 0108 -ia: Condition

The suffix ia names a condition or state of what its root identifies. Bradycardia is the condition of a slow heart rate. Ia is a broad condition suffix and carries no sense of disease on its own — in bradycardia the abnormality is stated by the prefix, and the ending says only that a state is being named.

A condition or process.

MedTerm 0109 -ism: Condition or Process

The suffix ism names a condition, process, or state of what its root identifies. Hyperthyroidism is the condition of an overactive thyroid gland. Ism often attaches to a gland or a substance and names its activity level, so the term reports how much something is doing rather than what structure it sits in.

Three entries to close, and each runs longer than what came before. The first works the three surgical suffixes of Part One on a single root and asks one question of each. The second works the recording cluster the same way, on a term every learner has seen abbreviated. The third decodes eight terms using nothing but Unit One's method and the suffixes these two parts have numbered, with the roots supplied. Watch the order it reads them in rather than the terms themselves.

Three surgical suffixes, one root.

MedTerm 0110 Choosing Among -ectomy, -otomy, and -ostomy

Choosing among the three surgical suffixes means asking one question about the structure: was it removed, opened, or given a permanent opening. The entry puts all three on the root for colon. Colectomy removes the colon or a segment of it, and nothing remains at that site. Colotomy cuts into it and closes it again, leaving the structure intact. Colostomy cuts it and creates an opening to the body surface that is meant to stay. The same three run on the trachea. Otomy and ostomy differ by one letter, and by whether the patient leaves with an opening.

The recording cluster, worked.

MedTerm 0111 Reading the -graphy, -gram, -graph Cluster

The three recording suffixes separate a process from its product and from the machine producing it, and the entry works one root three ways. Electrocardiography is the process, and it is what the technician performs. An electrocardiogram is the record, and it is what the cardiologist reads. An electrocardiograph is the instrument, and it is what sits beside the bed. Mammography, mammogram and the mammograph divide identically. The consequence the entry lands is a chart one: an order written for a gram is an order for the record, which means the process is performed to produce it.

The capstone. Eight terms, decoded from the suffix.

MedTerm 0112 Capstone: Eight Terms Decoded by Suffix

Eight terms decoded with nothing but Unit One's method and the suffixes these two parts have numbered, roots supplied. Gastritis, inflammation of the stomach. Hepatomegaly, enlargement of the liver. Nephrectomy, surgical removal of a kidney. Bronchoscopy, visual examination of the bronchi. Arthropathy, disease of a joint. Anemia, a blood condition of deficiency, built on a prefix where the others take a root. Dermatologist, a specialist in the skin. Angiorrhexis, rupture of a blood vessel. Every one of these was read from the suffix backwards: the ending says what kind of thing the term names, and the root then says which structure it belongs to. That order is the method, not a preference.

Five things to carry out of Unit Two, Part Two. Four operative suffixes, each naming a different thing done. Plasty rebuilds a structure. Pexy anchors one that has moved out of position, which is why it answers ptosis rather than answering plasty. Desis binds two structures permanently, so it reports continuity rather than restraint. Centesis punctures a structure to draw fluid off, and a puncture is not an incision. None of the four removes anything. One division appears twice. Scopy is the act of looking and scope is the instrument that looks; metry is the act of measuring and meter is the instrument that measures. In both pairs the process takes the longer ending and the instrument takes the shorter one. Metry ends in a number where graphy ends in an image, and that is the line between measuring and recording. The recording cluster splits three ways rather than two. Graphy is the process a technician performs, gram is the record a clinician reads, and graph is the machine at the bedside. Electrocardiography, electrocardiogram, electrocardiograph — one root, three endings, three different things. An order written for a gram is an order for the record, and the process is performed to produce it. Therapy names treatment by the means its root gives, so the root there says how rather than what. Logy is the field and logist is the person, separated by three letters. Seven endings all mean pertaining to, and each root takes one of them by convention: cardiac is the adjective for the heart, and cardial and cardious are not words. Oid claims likeness and never identity. Ia and ism name a condition without asserting disease. And the two worked problems are the part to keep. The three surgical suffixes answer one question: was the structure removed, opened, or given an opening meant to stay. Otomy and ostomy differ by a letter and by what the patient leaves with. Every term in the capstone was read from its ending backwards — the suffix says what kind of thing it is, and the root then says where. Unit Three turns to the universal prefixes — position, direction, number, time and negation, and the pairs among them that reverse a finding.