acronyms can be misinterpreted.
Next on the tour of plural forms is the antonym, proving once and for all that opposites do attract. An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. Examples would be right/wrong, right/left, up/down, and front/back. With reference to medical terms, some prefixes can be paired as opposites. Table 4-1 lists some of the most popular.
Table 4-1 Medical Antonyms
Eponyms
Eponyms are an unusual and interesting facet of the plural world. An eponym is a person, place, or thing from which a person, place, or thing gets (or is reputed to get) its name. For example, Romulus is the eponym of Rome. It can also refer to a person whose name is a synonym for something (from the Greek eponymos: epi [to] + onyma [name]). In the medical field, a disease, sign, operation, surgical instrument, syndrome, or test is often named after a certain physician, surgeon, scientist, or researcher.
Here are some of the most popular medical eponyms:
✔ Apgar score: Named after Virginia Apgar, American anesthesiologist (1909–1974). A numbering expressing the condition of a newborn infant at 1 minute of age and again at 5 minutes.
✔ Alzheimer’s disease: Named for Alois Alzheimer, a German neurologist (1864–1915). A progressive degenerative disease of the brain.
✔ Cushing’s syndrome: Named for Harvey Williams Cushing, American surgeon (1869–1939). A complex of symptoms caused by hyperactivity of the adrenal cortex.
✔ Down syndrome: Named after John Haydon Down, English physician (1828–1896). A chromosomal disorder, also called trisomy 21, formerly called mongolism.
✔ Gleason grade: Named for Donald Gleason, American pathologist (1920–2008). A rating of prostate cancer assigning scores of 1–5 for degrees of primary and secondary growth.
✔ Hodgkin’s disease: A form of malignant lymphoma. Named for Thomas Hodgkin, an English physician (1798–1866).
✔ Homans’ sign: Named for John Homans, American surgeon (1877–1954). Pain on dorsiflexion of the foot; a sign of thrombosis of deep veins of the calf.
✔ Ligament of Treitz: Located in the intestinal tract. Named after Wenzel Treitz, a Czech physician (1819–1872).
✔ Lyme disease: A multisystemic disorder transmitted by ticks. Named after a place, Old Lyme, Connecticut, where the disease was first reported in 1975.
✔ Peyronie’s disease: Named for Francois de la Peyronie, a French surgeon (1678–1747). It means a deformity or curvature of the penis caused by fibrous tissue within the tunica albuginea. When distortion of the penis is severe it causes erectile dysfunction or severe pain during intercourse.
✔ Parkinson’s disease: Named for James Parkinson, English physician (1755–1824). A group of neurological disorders including tremors and muscular rigidity.
As you can see, most of those famous people are no longer with us. So you had a much better chance of having something named after you if you were born a hundred years ago.
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