English Terms with Greek Origin used in Orthodontics

Abstract

Abstract: Greek is an independent branch of the Indo- European family of languages, native and official in Greece and Cyprus. It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language, spanning more than 3400 years of written records. English is a language that has roots in many other languages. Many modern English words have Greek roots and knowing some of these roots helps to figure out other English words. According to Webster’s New International Dictionary, Latin and Greek, especially Greek, is an inexhaustible source for the creation of scientific terms. A good deal of English vocabulary derives from Greek, especially in science, medicine, and technology. The literature of the Greeks, together with the Romans, is the starting point of Western thought. It is hard to imagine what our culture would be like without the philosophy of Plato, the dramas of Sophocles, the epics of Homer, the courtroom arguments of Demosthenes, the mathematical discoveries of Euclid and Archimedes, or the medical investigations of Hippocrates. The authors of this dictionary made their best efforts to produce a comprehensive work, based on several orthodontic, dental, medical and language sources, and to include as many English terms used in Orthodontics with Greek origin. Although it is extremely difficult to make an all-inclusive list, the authors feel that the words which may have been missed are negligible in number. It is the sincere hope of the authors that this comprehensive work will help in the better understanding of several not so widely used terms as well as to elucidate and emphasize the value of Greek in the orthodontic specialty. We, as Greeks, are privileged and lucky to speak a language that constitutes a keystone on which science has been based since its very beginning.