about medical terms

[yanx]

Hi,

I know there are many medical words being used by people whose jobs have nothing to do with medicine such as "red blood cell","short-sighted" and "underdevelopment" etc. But I found that English medical glossary formed by the prefixes, roots and suffixes are self-contained and they may have the same meaning with the common words like the above three I have listed. Here erythrocyte is red blood cell; myopia means short-sighted and hypoplasia is equal to underdevelopment.

So my question is： what are the differences between the two categories of words? When people speak or write something, which type would they use? I mean both in spoken English and in writing.

Thank you!

[SlickVic9000]

You'll mostly see words like myopia, hypoplasia, and erythrocyte used in scholarly writings like articles in medical journals.
That doesn't necessarily mean people outside of the medical profession are totally unfamiliar with these words, but a physician trying to tell a patient that he is anemic is more likely to use "low blood cell count".

[yanx]

You'll mostly see words like myopia, hypoplasia, and erythrocyte used in scholarly writings like articles in medical journals.
That doesn't necessarily mean people outside of the medical profession are totally unfamiliar with these words, but a physician trying to tell a patient that he is anemic is more likely to use "low blood cell count".

Thank you!!!

I see your point... It helps a lot!