Medical Terminology: Latin and Greek Roots - Descriptive

So you can tell if something is in the liver, if it’s around something else, if you’re talking about a disease or an expert on a disease…but what about those weird color roots that turn up so often, and what about other descriptive prefixes and suffixes? When you study syndromes (a collection of symptoms that is not a fully understood disease), descriptors are fairly common. Here are some of them that you’ll probably come across:

**If you go to my page tagged #Medical Terminology and use the search function on your computer [Ctrl + F on PCs], you can type part of a medical word you’ve seen, and you just might find the term that corresponds with it. :D

Colors:

Polio-: Grey (ex: Poliomyelitis - inflammation of the grey matter of the spinal cord)

Nigr-/Melano-: Black (Nigr- is almost exclusively used in Latin species names, such as Pinus negra, the Austrian pine, Melanoma - a black tumor - a dark-colored skin cancer that often forms from moles)

Leuk(o)-/Leuc-/Alb(o)-: White (Albinism - the state of being white - commonly known as a lack of pigmentation, Leukemia - derived from the term “leucocytemia” - a lack of white blood cells)

Xanth(o)-/Jaun-/Flav-: Yellow (ex: xanthoma - a yellow tumor - formed by cholesterol-rich fatty deposits building up under the skin, jaundice, flavenoids)

Cyano-: Blue (ex: cyanosis - a production or increase of blue - generally caused by low oxygen availability)

Chlor(o)-: Green (ex: chlorine: a green chemical - chlorine gas is a distinct green color)

Cirrh(o)-: Reddish-yellow (ex: cirrhosis - an increase or production of reddish-yellow coloring - refers to the coloration and appearance of the liver when it’s damaged)

Poryphyr(o)-/Purpur-/Purpureo-: Purple (ex: poryphyria - purple pigment - a set of genetic conditions that affects heme production - causes purple urine and faeces when attacks occur)

Erythr(o)-/Rhod(o)-/Rub-/Rubeo-: Red (ex: erythrocyte - literally, red cell - refers to red blood cells)

Descriptors:

Tachy-/Celer-: Fast

Brady-/Tard(i)-: Slow

Ortho-/Rect(i)-: Straight, normal, correct

Ankylo-/Prav(i)-: Bent, crooked

Neo-/Nov(i)-: New

Paleo-/Veter-: Old

Oxy-/Ac-: Sharp

Platy-/Plan(i)-: Flat

Cac(o)-/Dys-/Mal(e)- Bad, incorrect

Sten(o)-/Anguist(i)-: Narrow

Eury-/Lat(i)-: Wide, broad

Further Reading/Sources: 

Des Moines University Medical Terminology

Medlexicon

Online Etymology Dictionary

Medical Etymology of Herpes

And, of course, Antiquus Morbis