Terminologization of English Loan Terms in Post-Mortem Latin Diagnoses of the 21st Century

Abstract

As Pathology in Hungary uses highly conventionalized diagnoses in Latin language, it is a challenge to integrate English language terms becoming more and more widespread in clinical terminology, e.g., devices or surgical methods such as stent or bypass.  Our study aims to analyze non-Latin loan terms in Latin post-mortem diagnoses of 37 patho-anatomical protocols written in the Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research of Semmelweis University, Budapest. First, in general, the types of non-Latin terms embedded in a Latin context are presented.

In the past, in medical terminology originally based on the classical Latin language, some loan terms were taken up as indeclinable terms (e. g. the Arabic word gummi). In our corpus modern English terms were found in present-day Latin diagnoses: some of these English terms were adopted in a Latin pathological diagnosis using Latin (!) endings: (e. g. implantatio pacemakeris). Acronyms were also detected abbreviating longer, more complex terms of English origin which describe a specific anatomical structure without Latin endings (e. g. LAD = left anterior descendent [coronary artery]).

In our present case study, we examined language mistakes in the Latin diagnoses containing English terms which can be of the following types: simple spelling errors, syntactic and morphological mistakes, and hybrid compound words: foreign terms coined using grammatical rules of the Hungarian language (e. g. graft-implantationem).

In the second part of our study we show examples from our corpus. We propose possible terminological solutions in Latin to substitute English language elements in Latin diagnoses to avoid using  English medical terms and also demonstrate how to embed them in a Latin context in a grammatically correct form. To enhance communication between clinicians and pathologists, we suggest a terminologically unambiguous way to integrate English loan terms. The goal of this corpus analysis is to facilitate the terminologization of  modern English terms in pathology while keeping the traditional Latin standard.