Exercise Four

Already you have been introduced to the term pathology (pathos = disease + ology = science of, the study of). You have also probably seen the term pathogenic, composed of the root path(o) and the suffix -genic. This suffix appears at the end of many medical terms and means forming, producing or productive of.

Which of the following three words cannot be defined directly from a knowledge of the meaning of roots and suffixes?

	A	neurogenic means forming in nerves (neuro-)
	B	osteogenic means forming in the bones (osteo-)
	C	pathogenic means disease-producing (patho-)



Answer: C: pathogenic. A literal combination of root and suffix meanings would give the definition of "originating in the disease." You should not be surprised when the combined definitions of the elements of a medical term do not provide an exact definition of the term itself. Very often this will be the case, for example: anemia, with the prefix an-, meaning without, and the root -emia, meaning blood, is defined as "a deficiency of red blood cells" (not an absence of blood).