Latin

[crimson]

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Does it help to know Latin (or another language) for anatomy, physiology or advanced biology? I know this sounds a bit far fetched, but a prof. I was talking to last week from my undergrad school suggested I take two weeks and teach myself some elementary latin.
and oh yes, is latin a big pain in the gluteus maximus?
thannx 🙂

 

[Vader]

A knowledge of Latin could help you out, especially in anatomy (most of the names are Latin or derivative terms). However, I wouldn't take a Latin class unless I was really interested in learning the language.

 

[Vader]

By the way, many scientific and medical terms are derived from Greek. 😀

 

[Firebird]

I hated Latin.

 

[AJM]

You do not need Latin for medical school. Sure, it might help at first for anatomy, but everyone soon picks up the key latin words very early on. Most of the latin words sound a lot like their English counterparts, and some I think are "made up" Latin words that are actually english words with an ending added on to make them sound Latin.

I can't see how Latin would help you, though, in physiology or advanced biology -- not much latin in those subject areas.

 

[AJM]

Actually, if you're thinking about learning another language, by far the most useful language that I've learned is Spanish. You don't need it for your preclinical courses, but particularly if you're in California/Southwest, it will *really* come in handy in the clinical years. I took Spanish as a preclinical student in med school, and it's the only class I've had where I use the knowledge I've gained from it just about every day.

 

[leorl]

I'm echoing. I've taken Latin / Greek since 7th grade and one of my college majors is Classics. When I took anatomy & bio classes, it helped a little, but mainly only for making it easier to remember stuff like..what your thumb is called. But you don't really need a Latin / Greek background, and it won't help significantly in nomenclature unless you're bad at memorizing. If you're in med. school, I doubt you need the extra help of a latin class.

I personally find them very beautiful and fascinating languages, so I continued studies of them. However, if you need a language class and aren't interested in those two, take spanish/french/italian or any of the Romance languages because they have roots in Latin (and therefore, Greek). I'm sure in medical school, you might be able to recognize roots just from having learned a romance language.

Best of luck.

 

[Stephen Ewen]

There was a good recent discussion on this topic that can be found by using the seach function of this site and searching with the word "latin." It should prove helpful.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I think some rudimentary knowledge of Greek and/or Latin would be helpful but frankly you're gonna pick it up anyway and not having had a course in it won't put you behind the 8 ball in comparison to the rest of the students. Therefore, I would use that 2 weeks to do something I was really interested in. 😀

 

[turtleboard]

Originally posted by crimson:
•Does it help to know Latin (or another language) for anatomy, physiology or advanced biology? I know this sounds a bit far fetched, but a prof. I was talking to last week from my undergrad school suggested I take two weeks and teach myself some elementary latin.
and oh yes, is latin a big pain in the gluteus maximus?
thannx 🙂•

Nah. Some international council on naming human body parts decided a long, long time ago to begin using standard English translations and do away with Latin names. Also with just a rudimentary knowledge of Latin, you'll likely be more confused by some of the names as they're not always very accurate in translation to English. 🙂

 

[PTjay]

i had 3 years of latin in high school and 4 years of spanish. the latin comes in extremely helpful for clinical medicine and medical terminology (really easy to pick up the prefixes and suffixes again). i wish i held on to more of the spanish though cause i use that every time i work at the hospital, i'd spend more time on that. latin alone won't really help with A&P though which will get easier each time you review it.

 

[Neisseria]

Hi, I agree that spanish helps! I am fluent isn English and Spanish. Because spanish is 80% Latin, I can usually guess what most of the medical terms and abbreviations mean. However, I would not take a class in spanish. Take a med. term class instead. If you really wanna learn medical terms work in a hospital ER as a "tech" or in an M.D.s office. You will pick up TONS of stuff there!

Good Luck!

 

[DrQuinn]

i took four years of Latin, it did help me, and it has helped somehwat in medical school but by NO MEANS has it put me ahead of anyone else. Things like "ossify" or "pes" or "pede" SORT OF have a similar meaning in the medical language, but just like everyone else said, you pick it up just like everyone else. If you are interested in the Roman/Greek culture, then take Latin. Otherwise, Spanish is your BEST bet. I dont' know spanish but wish I took it sometime.

In picture est puella