You got it, buddy
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To be fair, it would be easier if English had kept the English terms for anatomy.
But for some reason everyone decided to only use Latin and Greek derived words.
Like seriously. Nearly every time I look at Wikipedia for anything, English articles only ever use scientific terms hardly anyone will find useful.
Example:
Wolf's entire biological taxonomical tree from species to order. Both the translated German Wikipedia title and the English one:
Species: Wolf <> Wolf
Genus: Wolf- and Jackal-like <> Canis
Tribe: True Dogs <> Canini
Family: Dogs <> Canidae
Suborder: Doglike <> Caniformia
Order: Predatory animal <> Carnivora
Ask someone what "Caniformia" is and most would probably think you're talking about some region on the US West Coast. Ask someone what "Doglike" refers to and most would probably guess reasonably correct.
I got confused because i initially read that as Worf instead of Wolf, and i thought that it was weird trying to make a point with a Star Trek character.
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I don't have an issue with using scientific names in scientific contexts if you intend to publish something international researchers should be able to parse. But just like maths, there is no problem in just... translating names? Imagine if you had to phrase sentences like: "The numerus realis make up a copia infinita." You'd have to translate Latin every time new studens would be taught because most mathematical terms convey a decent amount of information.
What I do have an issue with is using these terms anywhere outside of international contexts.
A doctor should not tell their patient they have a "humerus" fracture. In German they would take about the upper arm bone.
Or imagine if a doctor told you there is an infection in your digitus pedis. Fortunately English didn't replace the term "toes" with its scientific one... YET.
Hell, I could even apply this to doctor names in English which require a dictionary for anyone trying to parse them. I had to look up half of them by the way.
Children's Doctor <> Pediatrician
Women's Doctor <> Gynecologist
Tooth Doctor <> Dentist (the least bad in my opinion - at least it's short)
Eye Doctor <> Optometrist
Neck-Nose-Ear Doctor <> Otorhinolaryngologist (wtf???)
Skin Doctor <> Dermatologist
Like, surely there must have been (native) English terms for those doctors in the past. It's not like the medical field popped into existence in the 1700's. You can't tell me a 15th century English peasent used Latin/Greek derived names for common specialized doctors.
"ear-nose-throat" is commonly used in English.
And it kind of is like the medical field popped into existence in the 1700s.
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To be fair, it would be easier if English had kept the English terms for anatomy.
But for some reason everyone decided to only use Latin and Greek derived words.
Like seriously. Nearly every time I look at Wikipedia for anything, English articles only ever use scientific terms hardly anyone will find useful.
Example:
Wolf's entire biological taxonomical tree from species to order. Both the translated German Wikipedia title and the English one:
Species: Wolf <> Wolf
Genus: Wolf- and Jackal-like <> Canis
Tribe: True Dogs <> Canini
Family: Dogs <> Canidae
Suborder: Doglike <> Caniformia
Order: Predatory animal <> Carnivora
Ask someone what "Caniformia" is and most would probably think you're talking about some region on the US West Coast. Ask someone what "Doglike" refers to and most would probably guess reasonably correct.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Yet another thing that could be fixed by better education in the US.
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Why taint though? O.o
It's an old term for the sexual organs that's only used as part of terms these days. I tried to kinda match that. My translation wasn't great, though.
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I got confused because i initially read that as Worf instead of Wolf, and i thought that it was weird trying to make a point with a Star Trek character.
"Mr. Worf, set course to the Vulva region on Labia Minora 4"
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To be fair, it would be easier if English had kept the English terms for anatomy.
But for some reason everyone decided to only use Latin and Greek derived words.
Like seriously. Nearly every time I look at Wikipedia for anything, English articles only ever use scientific terms hardly anyone will find useful.
Example:
Wolf's entire biological taxonomical tree from species to order. Both the translated German Wikipedia title and the English one:
Species: Wolf <> Wolf
Genus: Wolf- and Jackal-like <> Canis
Tribe: True Dogs <> Canini
Family: Dogs <> Canidae
Suborder: Doglike <> Caniformia
Order: Predatory animal <> Carnivora
Ask someone what "Caniformia" is and most would probably think you're talking about some region on the US West Coast. Ask someone what "Doglike" refers to and most would probably guess reasonably correct.
I disagree, using Latin terms means that all technical terms stay the same across languages.
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I have a fwend in Rome by that name!
He has a wife, you know!
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It's an old term for the sexual organs that's only used as part of terms these days. I tried to kinda match that. My translation wasn't great, though.
Oh, okay. Thanks for the explanation
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Eye Doctor <> Optometrist
Perfect example of why that is a bad approach. An Optometrist can measure your eyes for basic vision problems and monitor your retina issues, but you'd need an Ophthalmologist if you need surgery on those eyes for something the Optometrist finds.
Optometrists/opticians aren't doctors over here though. They belong to the trades. This field doesn't exist in Germany the same way it does in the US/Britain:
Optometric tasks are performed by ophthalmologists and professionally trained and certified opticians.
Eye doctors does actually refer to ophthalmologist though, I picked the "wrong" translation which ignores the differing legal frameworks. Looking back, I certainly went to the full blown ophthalmologist just for optometric purposes.
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"ear-nose-throat" is commonly used in English.
And it kind of is like the medical field popped into existence in the 1700s.
Partially. In German, the term eye doctor has first been recorded in 1401 (ougenarzt) (according to Wikipedia).
The 1700's made enormous medical progress - but it's not like people prior to that had no need for specialized doctors. For example, according to etymonline the term "dentist" was first used in 1759. You can't tell me dentists didn't exist for many centuries prior to that and didn't have an "English-derived", self-explanatory term. I mean, I never knew "dent" was Latin for tooth until reading the etymology just now.
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Partially. In German, the term eye doctor has first been recorded in 1401 (ougenarzt) (according to Wikipedia).
The 1700's made enormous medical progress - but it's not like people prior to that had no need for specialized doctors. For example, according to etymonline the term "dentist" was first used in 1759. You can't tell me dentists didn't exist for many centuries prior to that and didn't have an "English-derived", self-explanatory term. I mean, I never knew "dent" was Latin for tooth until reading the etymology just now.
Sure, but many of those words for specialised doctors came to English through French, not directly from Latin or Greek. And I don't think that you can reasonably argue that English words with French origins aren't by now a native part of the language. We use many of the same names in Dutch too, coming from French loanwords.
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I disagree, using Latin terms means that all technical terms stay the same across languages.
This doesn't apply to most other fields though.
In physics, only the abbreviations are (mostly) the same internationally. But the full terms are always translated into languages, despite being equally as technical.
In math, no terms are international - only the specification of formulas is standardized.
Music is the exception but their field belonged to elitist pricks for most of history tbf.
Art (painting) uses translated terms everywhere from what I can tell. There are no translated terms for paints, canvas type, style, periods etc.
History certainly doesn't use international terms either. Medieval, stone age, bronze age, modern age etc. are all translated into each language.
Amd frankly, I don't see why anatomy has to use international terms whatsoever while other fields can use translated terms without any issue.
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Sure, but many of those words for specialised doctors came to English through French, not directly from Latin or Greek. And I don't think that you can reasonably argue that English words with French origins aren't by now a native part of the language. We use many of the same names in Dutch too, coming from French loanwords.
Wasn't English's French influence mostly over by this point? The Norman conquest added a bunch of French vocabulary but by the 1700's, England was a stable colonial power.
And for very frequently used terms - like anatomical terms - the English root remained mostly intact and loanwords weren't used. Arm, nose, shoulder, knee, elbow etc. are not French in origin.
I suspect it could be remnant of nobility separating itself from the common people. By only ever referring to anything with its Latin term, you can distinguish the wealthy, highly-educated from the poorer, lesser-educated people. After all, if you spoke Latin and/or Greek those terms make a lot of intuitive sense.
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I mean, the state of sex education in the US is abysmal, misinformation and just no information is so rampant that it's rather silly to expect the average young adult to know the detailed anatomic names.
In my life so far, I've dated plently of women who didn't know anatomical names, or with a few, even basic signs of what a vaginal health problem looks like.
With one, I had to deduce that her described urinary problems were possibly actually bacterial vaginosis when I uh, also noticed the smell.
She got extremely pissed off, thinking I was insulting her, thinking I was saying she had an STD/STI... a week later she's back from the doctor and yep, I was right, now she's on antibiotics.
How many women can, off the top of their head, identify the vas deferens, cowper's gland, or know that testicular torsion is even a thing?
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So weird to hear this. Like the whole area just isn’t that big, surely eventually most people stumble into it even if they aren’t making an effort…
Yeah after hearing the "can't find the clitoris" and "it doesn't exist" jokes for so long, I was kind of shocked by how easy it was when I finally got down there...
I do believe that there are men who have this issue, but it seems kind of fucked up that the woman would just complain about it rather than take 3 seconds to show them. It's not like it's well hidden or anything.
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The search still go on
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So weird to hear this. Like the whole area just isn’t that big, surely eventually most people stumble into it even if they aren’t making an effort…
I very rarely come across a labia minora either at work or at home, but maybe I'm not working in the right place or something.
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To be fair, the majority of women, who have said bits, don't know what they are either, most seem to think it is all vagina.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Aren’t most of the external parts actually the vulva? I thought the vagina was just the tube…
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Aren’t most of the external parts actually the vulva? I thought the vagina was just the tube…
It is, but properly naming things isn't something Internet users are very good at.
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I disagree, using Latin terms means that all technical terms stay the same across languages.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]We call them the "little lips" (which is a direct translation of labia minora btw) in my language and I don't believe we're losing anything there.
