Anatomical Terms in Jurgis Žilinskas’ Short Textbook of Osteology and Syndesmology

Abstract

Medical terminology has an extensive and rich history in Latin and Greek languages. When Romans conquered Greece, the knowledge and language of both cultures merged, resulting in new medical concepts regarding disease treatment and containment. Medical records were chronicled by hand, creating medical terms and books. Although medical terms have been drawn from many languages, a large majority originate from Greek and Latin. Terms of Greek origin occur mainly in clinical terminology, while Latin terms make up the majority of anatomical terminology. Another reason for a large number of Greek medical terms is that the Greek language is quite suitable for building compound words. The article discusses the current state of anatomical terminology in Lithuania. The history of the Lithuanian nomenclature of anatomy dates back several centuries, during which the most frequently used Lithuanian anatomical terms were gradually developed. Every time, writing and publishing textbooks, methodological aids, and other anatomy books in the Lithuanian language, the authors interpreted various Latin anatomy terms in their own way and introduced new equivalents in the Lithuanian language. However, they often did not agree on the translation of various Latin terms into Lithuanian and their application to define various structures. The development and perfection of medical terminology is a long process. The most significant contribution in regulating Lithuanian anatomical terminology was made by Jurgis Žilinskas. The terms that we currently use can be found in his textbooks “Osteologija ir syndesmologija” (“Osteology and syndesmology”) (1932) and “Splanchnologija” (“Splanchnology”) (1934) (Litevkiene, Korosteliova 2012, 208). He initiated term regulation in his first textbook, “Lectures of Neurology” (1923), containing only Latin terms, well-formed according to Baseler’s nomenclature. The nomenclature of anatomy compiled by him was applied in other anatomy textbooks and the Dictionary of Medical Terms.