Basic Medical Terminology - T (Part 1) Quiz

Answer: fast

Tachy- (pronounced "tacky") is a prefix derived from the Greek word "tachys" meaning swift, rapid or fast. An abnormally rapid heart rate is termed tachycardia, customarily applied to heart rates exceeding 100 beats per minute. Abnormally rapid breathing is tachypnoea (pronounced tack-KIP-knee-a).

For car enthusiasts, it is also where we get the word tachometer from. A motor vehicle has a tachometer and a speedometer, both of which measure speed. A speedometer measures the speed of a moving vehicle (in miles or kilometres per hour), whereas a tachometer measures the rotation speed of an engine (in revolutions per minute).

Answer: across, through

Trans- is a prefix taken from the Latin "trans" meaning across, over or beyond. Words such as transfer, transmit, transport, transfusion, and transplant, all involve an element of something passing from one place across or over to another. In anatomy, the term "transverse" is descriptive of anything that lies crossways or across - for example, the transverse colon is the portion of the colon (large intestine) which lies across the abdomen, passing from right to left below the stomach.

Answer: sea

Thalassaemia is a genetic (inherited) blood disorder. The name comes from the Greek "thalassa" meaning sea because it was first observed in people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea. Originally it was called Mediterranean anaemia, but was renamed thalassaemia in 1932.

In thalassaemia, there is an abnormality in the protein part of the haemoglobin molecule. The affected red blood cells cannot function normally which leads to anaemia. If a person inherits the gene for thalassaemia from both parents, the disease is called thalassaemia major. Sufferers usually experience symptoms such as severe anaemia, enlargment of the spleen and abnormalities of the bone marrow. It can be fatal to an unborn child. The disease is treated with repeated blood transfusions and sometimes bone marrow transplant is required. However, if the gene is inherited from only one parent, the person may be asymptomatic (symptom-free). This is called thalassaemia minor.

Answer: tendon

Hopefully, matching up tendon with the word parts tend/o, -tendin- and tendin/o wasn't too difficult. Please note that, although the body part is spelled as "tendon", the word root is spelled with an "i" (-tendin-). Therefore, the correct spelling is tendinitis, NOT tendonitis. However, because so many people spell it incorrectly, the wrong spelling has gained some acceptance by sheer persistence! The incorrect spelling is occasionally found in dictionaries as a variant spelling. (But it's still wrong!)

These word parts are derived from the Latin "tendere" and the Greek "teinein", both meaning to stretch. Tendons are fibrous connective tissues that attach muscles to bones and have the ability to stretch like an elastic band during movement.

Answer: treatment

The Greek word "therapeia" means a service, attendance or waiting on, in the context of healing or curing. In modern medical terminology it gives us the suffix -therapy, which means treatment. For words ending in -therapy, the word part used in front of the suffix usually indicates the nature of the treatment.

For example, chemotherapy (treatment with drugs), cryotherapy (cold), hydrotherapy (water), radiotherapy (x-ray), and chemotherapy (drugs).

Answer: heat

The word parts therm/o and -therm- mean heat, from the Greek "therme" (heat) and "thermos" (hot). Although the first thermometer (instrument to measure heat) was devised by Galileo in 1592, the word "thermometer" was not coined until 1626 by a French Jesuit priest, Father Jean Leuréchon.

Other examples of usage include diathermy (a surgical technique involving the production of heat by a high-frequency electric current to destroy unhealthy tissue, and/or to cause bleeding vessels to clot) and thermotherapy (the use of heat to alleviate pain and stiffness in joints and muscles and to promote an increase in circulation).

Answer: four

The Greek "tetra-" and Latin "quadri-" are prefixes which mean four. Although quadri- tends to be used more often than tetra-, there are a few common medical words that utilise the latter, such as tetraplegia (also known as quadriplegia), paralysis involving all four limbs.

The tetralogy of Fallot is a form of congenital heart disease, so-called because it involves four basic features and was named after a French physician, Etienne-Louis Fallot. Tetracyclines ("four rings") are a group of antibiotics which contain four fused hydrocarbon rings in their chemical structure.

Answer: the thoracic vertebrae

The spinal column or spine consists of individual bones called vertebrae (singular: vertebra). The thoracic spine is the section of the spinal column that contains the vertebrae to which the ribs are attached. There are 12 pairs of ribs, hence there are 12 thoracic vertebrae. To distinguish between the bones, they are named with the initial T (for thoracic) and a number from 1 to 12.

The numbering starts from the top and proceeds downwards (from upper to lower back); i.e. T1, T2, T3 and so on until T12.

By the way, contrary to the biblical story, men and woman have exactly the same number of ribs - 24, arranged in 12 pairs. (When I was teaching Medical Terminology, I was astonished at how many people believed men had one less rib than women).

Answer: three times daily (abbreviation)

The abbreviation t.i.d. stands for "ter in die" in Latin, which means three times a day in English. It is usually seen in the context of prescription of drugs.

Answer: testicle

The correct anatomical name for the male testicle is "testis" (plural: testes), which is a direct borrowing of the Latin word "testis", meaning witness. Testicle literally means "little witness" (in the same way that particle means "little part"). There are two schools of thought on the reason for this. One is that the presence of the testes bears witness to the fact that a human being is a male.

The other is that, in ancient times, men testified in court by swearing on their testicles (swearing to tell the truth or may the gods strike them impotent).

It is not a coincidence that the words testament, testimony, testify and testicle are related. Those who did not have testicles (i.e. women and eunuchs) were not allowed to give evidence in court.