[German influences on Romanian medical terminology].
The medical terminology plays a key part both in the study of medicine as well as in its practice. Moreover, understanding the medical terms is important not only for the doctor but also for the patients who want to learn more about their condition. For these reasons we believe that the study of medical terminology is one of great interest. The aim of our paper was to evaluate the German linguistic and medical influences on the evolution of the Romanian medical terminology. Since the Romanian-German cultural contacts date back to the 12th century we had reasons to believe that the number of German medical words in Romanian would be significant. To our surprise, the Romanian language has very few German words and even less medical terms of German origin. However, when we searched the list of diseases coined after famous medical personalities, we found out that 26 % of them bore the names of German doctors and scientists. Taken together this proves that the German medical school played an important role on the evolution of Romanian medicine despite the fact that the Romanian vocabulary was slightly influenced by the German language. We explain this fact on the structural differences between the Romanian and German languages, which make it hard for German loans to be integrated in the Romanian lexis. In conclusion we state that the German influence on the Romanian medical terminology is weak despite the important contribution of the German medical school to the development of medical education and healthcare in Romania. Key
Răcilă
R G
RG
Disciplina de Biofizică si Medicină nucleară, Facultatea de Medicină, Universitatea de Medicină si Farmacie Gr.T. Popa Iaşi.
Răileanu
Irena
I
Rusu
V
V
D004501:Education, Medical; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008511:Medicine; D012383:Romania; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014825:Vocabulary