LATIN'S ROLE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS IN MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY

Abstract

The current paper provides a contemporary perspective on Latin's role as the language of medicine, specifically focusing on its terminological aspect. It delves into the essential terminological vocabularies indispensable for medical practitioners, with particular emphasis on three fundamental categories. Foremost among these is anatomical terminology, which continues to predominantly utilize Latin on an international scale. Clinical disciplines present a more diverse scenario, where alongside Latin terms, expressions from ancient origins, often in ethnic languages, are extensively employed. Additionally, driven partly by the demands of digitization, there have been repeated efforts to promote English as a potential successor in the realm of clinical medicine, owing to its widespread adoption. In pharmaceutical terminology, Latin persists as a vital means of global communication, upheld by the European Pharmacopoeia (2014) and the International Non-proprietary Names corpus (2013, 2017). Nonetheless, future considerations should acknowledge the growing competition from national languages in this domain.