International scientific vocabulary (ISV) comprises scientific and specialized words whose language of origin may or may not be certain, but which are in current use in several modern languages (that is, translingually, whether in naturalized,
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...
, or
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
forms).
The name "international scientific vocabulary" was first used by
Philip Gove
Philip Babcock Gove (June 27, 1902–November 16, 1972) was an American lexicographer who was editor-in-chief of the ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary'', published in 1961.
Born in Concord, New Hampshire, he received his A.B. from Dar ...
in '' Webster's Third New International Dictionary'' (1961). As noted by David Crystal, science is an especially productive field for new coinages. It is also especially predisposed to immediate translingual sharing of words owing to its very nature: scientists working in many countries and languages, reading each other's latest articles in scientific journals (via foreign language skills, translation help, or both), and eager to apply any reported advances to their own context.
Instances
According to ''Webster's Third'', "some ISV words (like haploid) have been created by taking a word with a rather general and simple meaning from one of the languages of antiquity, usually
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
and Greek, and conferring upon it a very specific and complicated meaning for the purposes of modern scientific discourse." An ISV word is typically a classical compound or a derivative which "gets only its raw materials, so to speak, from antiquity." Its morphology may vary across languages.
The online version of Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (Merriam-Webster, 2002) adds that the ISV "consists of words or other linguistic forms current in two or more languages" that "differ from New Latin in being adapted to the structure of the individual languages in which they appear." In other words, ISV terms are often made with Greek, Latin, or other combining forms, but each language pronounces the resulting neo-lexemes within its own phonemic "comfort zone", and makes morphological connections using its normal morphological system. In this respect, ISV can be viewed as heavily borrowing
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...
s from New Latin.
McArthur characterizes ISV words and morphemes as " translinguistic", explaining that they operate "in many languages that serve as mediums for education, culture, science, and technology." Besides European languages, such as Russian, Swedish, English, and Spanish, ISV lexical items also function in Japanese, Malay, Philippine languages, and other Asian languages. According to McArthur, no other set of words and morphemes is so international.
It is not always practically relevant, to any concerns except
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...
and the history of science, which language any particular ISV term first appeared in, as its cognate naturalized counterparts in other languages are effectively
coeval
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The ISV is one of the concepts behind the development and standardization of the
constructed language
A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...
called Interlingua. Scientific and medical terms in Interlingua are largely of Greco-Latin origin, but, like most Interlingua words, they appear in a wide range of languages. Interlingua's vocabulary is established using a group of ''control languages'' selected as they radiate words into, and absorb words from, a large number of other languages. A ''prototyping'' technique then selects the most recent common ancestor of each eligible Interlingua word or affix. The word or affix takes a contemporary form based on the control languages. This procedure is meant to give Interlingua the most generally international vocabulary possible.Gode, Alexander, '' Interlingua: A Dictionary of the International Language''. New York: Storm Publishers, 1951.
Words and word roots that have different meanings from those in the original languages
This is a list of scientific words and word roots which have different meanings from those in the original languages.
Words and word roots that have one meaning from Latin and another meaning from Greek
This is a list of scientific words and word roots which have one meaning from Latin and another meaning from Greek.
Other words and word roots with two meanings
This is a list of other scientific words and word roots which have two meanings.
Other differences
Another difference between scientific terms and classical Latin and Greek is that many compounded scientific terms do not elide the
inflection
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
vowel at the end of a
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...
before another root or prefix that starts with a vowel, e.g. gastroenteritis; but elision happens in
gastrectomy
A gastrectomy is a partial or total surgical removal of the stomach.
Indications
Gastrectomies are performed to treat stomach cancer and perforations of the stomach wall.
In severe duodenal ulcers it may be necessary to remove the lower porti ...
(not *''gastroectomy'').
The Greek word () = " monster" is usually used to mean "monster (abnormal)" (e.g. teratology, teratogen), but some biological names use it to mean "monster (enormous)" (e.g. the extinct animals '' Teratornis'' (a condor with a 12-foot wingspan) and ''
Terataspis
''Terataspis'' is a comparatively huge, 60 centimetre long lichid trilobite genus from the Early Devonian, about 397 million years ago. It lived in a shallow sea in what is now New York State and Ontario. No whole specimens have been found, ...
A feature affecting clarity in seeing a scientific word's components is haplology, i.e. removing one of two identical or similar syllables that meet at the junction point of a compound word. Examples are:
* appendectomy = , , (Latin for " appendix (anatomy)") + '' -ectomy'' (ultimately from Greek , "a cutting")
*
Dracohors
Dinosauromorpha is a clade of avemetatarsalian archosaurs (reptiles closer to birds than to crocodilians) that includes the Dinosauria (dinosaurs) and some of their close relatives. It was originally defined to include dinosauriforms and lag ...
cohort
Cohort or cohortes may refer to:
* Cohort (educational group), a group of students working together through the same academic curriculum
* Cohort (floating point), a set of different encodings of the same numerical value
* Cohort (military unit) ...
Binomial nomenclature
In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name compos ...
Internationalism (linguistics)
In linguistics, an internationalism or international word is a loanword that occurs in several languages (that is, translingually) with the same or at least similar meaning and etymology. These words exist in "several different languages as a ...
Lexicography
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
Scientific notation
Scientific notation is a way of expressing numbers that are too large or too small (usually would result in a long string of digits) to be conveniently written in decimal form. It may be referred to as scientific form or standard index form, o ...
List of Latin abbreviations
This is a list of common Latin abbreviations. Nearly all the abbreviations below have been adopted by Modern English. However, with some exceptions (for example, ''versus'' or '' modus operandi''), most of the Latin referent words and phrases a ...
*
List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants i ...
List of Latin words with English derivatives
This is a list of Latin words with derivatives in English (and other modern languages).
Ancient orthography did not distinguish between ''i'' and ''j'' or between ''u'' and ''v''. Many modern works distinguish u from v but not i from j. In this ...
*
List of Greek and Latin roots in English
The English language uses many Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes. These roots are listed alphabetically on three pages:
* Greek and Latin roots from A to G
* Greek and Latin roots from H to O
* Greek and Latin roots from P to Z.
Som ...