TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY

Any specialized terminology is a living organism which constantly adapts to current requirements of accurate communication. Indisputably, breakthroughs in science and technology greatly impact languages all over the world, leading to the coining of new words and syntagms which complement the terminological heritage. Contrary to younger terminologies, such as the recently created field of AI, medical terminology has a long and rich history, which started when the Greek and Roman civilizations had reached their fame, and has evolved considerably since Hippocrates, whose medical treaties date back to the 4th and 5th centuries BC. For this reason, a significant number of medical words used in biomedical sciences and clinical medicine originate from Latin and Greek. Nevertheless, like younger fields of activity, the medical sciences have also been in continual progress, making use of more and more sophisticated tools and instruments and benefitting from well-equipped research centres and highly qualified researchers, inventors, academics and medical doctors. The updating of the medical working environment has paved the way for new linguistic units to name the brand new discoveries (be they elements of anatomy, disease-related terms or medical equipment). The main objective of the present paper is to provide an overview of the characteristics of medical language, with a special focus on the specialized or technical vocabulary, which encompasses Greek and Latin words, semi-technical vocabulary and elements of the word stock. Moreover, it aims at emphasizing that it constantly incorporates new realities, which emerge as a result of the progress of scientific research and technical innovation.