Maxilla
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Etymology of Biology: The study of life, or language?
Introduction
When you think of biology, I’d assume you think of an extremely content-heavy, jargon-filled and memorisation-based subject. I mean, it's impossible not to assume so, because that quite literally is what it is. You’re sitting there in a class, going through new concepts, organs and animals, trying to scribble down notes so you can go home and monotonously memorise them letter by letter. Then come your exams, where it seems like you have to revise a whole new language of multi-syllable words and meanings. But it doesn’t have to be that complicated. What if I told you, you could actually break down biology into Lego pieces, building blocks which make the vocabulary significantly easier to remember? Sounds interesting, right? Well, let me introduce you to the world of Etymology.
Etymology
Google definition: the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.
It is as simple as it sounds. It’s how we study the origins of words and their combinations. The words you see here are all derivatives of previous languages. English is a weird language, a Frankenstein of German, Scandinavian, French and a lot more. But it’s beside the point — to understand how we can use etymology to better memorise biology, we need to understand how it works. While I listed some countries which English borrows from, it is important to understand that the world of science is mainly made up of Latin and Greek. But we haven’t dived into that yet. Let's start off with basic etymological breakdowns to get your mind warmed up.
Word: Psychology
Psyche (Greek = mind)
Logy (Greek logos = study)
And the word psychology can be translated into “mind study”, being its actual definition. Study of the mind
Word: Microscope
Micro (Greek = small)
Scope (Greek = to look at)
Microscope translating to: to “small to look at”, which once again is what we use microscopes for.
But this doesn’t make much grammatical sense. Why do the word translations seem to be backward?? Shouldn’t it be logymind and scopemicro? Why is the microscope's direct translation “small to look at” and not the other way around? “To look at small” seems to make a lot more sense. And psychology is typically known as “Study of the mind.” Why is it translated to “mind study”? That also doesn’t make sense.
Understanding Romantic Languages
In the English language, our structure for words is (Adjective > Noun). So, for example,
-Scary monster
-Fast car
-Charismatic man
Makes sense. But we need to understand that our language falls into the Germanic family of languages. So German (obviously), English, Dutch, Swedish etc. But of course, there exist different families, being the Romantic language family. Do you remember when I told you that scientific jargon is typically made up of Greek and Latin? Well, both of those are romantic languages. A huge difference between Germanic and romantic languages is their order of words. Romantic languages such as Spanish, Italian and Portuguese follow a reverse order of our structure being (Noun > Adjective). If you’re an energy drinker, you see an extremely popular flavor: Mango Loco follows this. It translates to “Mango Crazy”, which doesn’t make grammatical sense to us, since we’re all used to our own Germanic structure, it should be “Crazy Mango” in our heads, but in the realm of Romantic languages, it makes perfect sense. So while we’ve been used to our Germanic structure our whole lives, a proper grammatical version of our examples would be
-Monster scary
-Car fast
-Man charismatic
I know, sounds off and weird but it’s perfect in terms of romantic structure. Understanding the difference between these two will be important later.
Dissecting Biology
So back to what I said in the intro: Biology is one jargon-heavy, complex subject. It has all these new terms, words and concepts which you’re just supposed to memorise? But now we can use our understanding of etymology to break down these words into significantly easier building blocks to memorise and apply.
So here's the secret: The supposed ‘difficult’ biology terms you dread aren’t even that hard to memorise. They’re actually a combination of extremely easy and simple words from ancient Greek and Latin following a romantic structure. If you can properly understand the building blocks of the etymology of these words, biology won’t be that hard to actually memorise and understand.
But, before we dive into this, we need to first be able to use interpretive language and fill in blanks by ourselves. When we break down the etymology of these biological terms, we need to also interpret the gaps because we’ll be getting their meaning in raw form. So please keep in mind a list of connecting words such as
-Of/ Of The
-With
-Inside/In
-From
Let’s break it down into a simple example first
Hemoglobin
Hemo
Greek = haima
Meaning = Blood
Globin
Latin = globus
Meaning = Sphere
“In” suffix = Scientific terminology for protein
Globin = Sphere protein
So our direct translation should be: Blood Sphere Protein
This doesn’t make sense at all. But that’s why I said to remember our Romantic language structure, if we flip it around from our Germanic structure it turns into
Protein Sphere Blood
Then we can piece together the final part, and using our connector words which seems appropriate
Protein Sphere of the Blood
And it essentially tells us the answer for us. Hemoglobin is the protein of the blood.
Example 2
Dermatitis
Derma
Latin = derma
Meaning = Skin
itis
Greek = nosos
Meaning = Inflammation
Direct Translation: Skin Inflammation
Flipped romanticised version: Inflammation Skin
Interpreted: Inflammation of the skin
And just like that, we decoded what dermatitis is using etymology. Seems a lot easier to memorise, right? Now instead of brute force memorisation you can properly remember the breakdown of the words and know now just off the word alone it is inflammation of the skin.
Example 3
Intracellular
Intra
Latin = intra
Meaning = Inside
Cell
Latin = cella
Meaning = Cell
-ular
Suffix = related to
Direct Translation: Inside Cell Related
Flipped Romanticised Version: Related Inside Cell
Interpreted: Inside the cell
You get it now, right? It’s a formulaic process to break down the definition of words without having to brute force, memorise them word by word and pairing it with a definition. Essentially just mix and match. Unfortunately, we need to actually study the etymology and know its meaning before we can finally break down these words just at a glance. So here is a list of words I highly recommend you learn.
BECAUSE OF THE CHARACTER LIMIT I COULDNT POST THE TABLES SO IlL JUST PASTE IT IN
Brute-Force memorisation VS Comprehension
But why does it work? If we dive into neuroscience, it goes back to how our neurons work with each other. When you attempt to brute force something, you’re using working memory which only creates a surface-level form of storing said information. The stuff you’re trying to remember is held along short-term pathways. While you can eventually memorise it, it must be repeated extremely often to ensure you are capable of keeping it inside your mind. This also increases the big risk of when you do take an exam: your mind blanking. Your brain isn’t just a shelf you can place things on and come back to get. It prefers to make connections and create a sense of familiarity. Compare this to deconstructing the words into your previously existing knowledge, it activates deep semantic processing. It is by far the most efficient way of memorising and then recalling knowledge. It is the focus on genuine comprehension of the stimuli and connecting it to any other previous existing knowledge which you have. The former difficult part in achieving deep semantic processing was finding knowledge you already have to link back to the concept you are trying to memorise. Luckily, because of our lesson in etymology, it is already done for us. After understanding something, our brains link together multiple regions to further drill it into our minds, making it a significantly stronger connection. Because of our pre-existing knowledge of etymology, the vocabulary we are forced to memorise suddenly becomes easier than ever. The definitions and processes of the word now are digestible blocks which sit comfortably in our heads. Your brain’s overall memory is like a tree with many branches. Trying to brute-force a concept is like trying to build an extension branch to the tree out of thin air. Why would you ever do that? It’ll be time-consuming, end up flimsy and won’t even last after a while. When you utilize deep semantic connection, you’re growing smaller branches on top of the pre-existing ones already. It is so much easier, a lot less time-consuming and can actually be built in the future too.
Conclusion
I hope from reading this, you realize that Biology isn’t some uphill subject of endless flashcards and revision. The formerly startling vocabulary now doesn’t seem so terrifying, it’s just blocks of Greek and Latin mashed together in deceptively simple jargon. It opens up a new perspective on biology, it’s now a game of decoding and connections as opposed to the painstakingly egregious process of notes, revision and application you’d enslave yourself with. The goal of me writing this was to help you in the complex world of biology. If I managed to at least help one person read this with my etymology guide, then all the effort was well worth it. A lot of people skip over etymology as it seems like a niche only appealing to linguistic nerds, but few people realize it walks hand in hand with the study of life.
Thanks for reading
-Maxilla
Introduction
When you think of biology, I’d assume you think of an extremely content-heavy, jargon-filled and memorisation-based subject. I mean, it's impossible not to assume so, because that quite literally is what it is. You’re sitting there in a class, going through new concepts, organs and animals, trying to scribble down notes so you can go home and monotonously memorise them letter by letter. Then come your exams, where it seems like you have to revise a whole new language of multi-syllable words and meanings. But it doesn’t have to be that complicated. What if I told you, you could actually break down biology into Lego pieces, building blocks which make the vocabulary significantly easier to remember? Sounds interesting, right? Well, let me introduce you to the world of Etymology.
Etymology
Google definition: the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.
It is as simple as it sounds. It’s how we study the origins of words and their combinations. The words you see here are all derivatives of previous languages. English is a weird language, a Frankenstein of German, Scandinavian, French and a lot more. But it’s beside the point — to understand how we can use etymology to better memorise biology, we need to understand how it works. While I listed some countries which English borrows from, it is important to understand that the world of science is mainly made up of Latin and Greek. But we haven’t dived into that yet. Let's start off with basic etymological breakdowns to get your mind warmed up.
Word: Psychology
Psyche (Greek = mind)
Logy (Greek logos = study)
And the word psychology can be translated into “mind study”, being its actual definition. Study of the mind
Word: Microscope
Micro (Greek = small)
Scope (Greek = to look at)
Microscope translating to: to “small to look at”, which once again is what we use microscopes for.
But this doesn’t make much grammatical sense. Why do the word translations seem to be backward?? Shouldn’t it be logymind and scopemicro? Why is the microscope's direct translation “small to look at” and not the other way around? “To look at small” seems to make a lot more sense. And psychology is typically known as “Study of the mind.” Why is it translated to “mind study”? That also doesn’t make sense.
Understanding Romantic Languages
In the English language, our structure for words is (Adjective > Noun). So, for example,
-Scary monster
-Fast car
-Charismatic man
Makes sense. But we need to understand that our language falls into the Germanic family of languages. So German (obviously), English, Dutch, Swedish etc. But of course, there exist different families, being the Romantic language family. Do you remember when I told you that scientific jargon is typically made up of Greek and Latin? Well, both of those are romantic languages. A huge difference between Germanic and romantic languages is their order of words. Romantic languages such as Spanish, Italian and Portuguese follow a reverse order of our structure being (Noun > Adjective). If you’re an energy drinker, you see an extremely popular flavor: Mango Loco follows this. It translates to “Mango Crazy”, which doesn’t make grammatical sense to us, since we’re all used to our own Germanic structure, it should be “Crazy Mango” in our heads, but in the realm of Romantic languages, it makes perfect sense. So while we’ve been used to our Germanic structure our whole lives, a proper grammatical version of our examples would be
-Monster scary
-Car fast
-Man charismatic
I know, sounds off and weird but it’s perfect in terms of romantic structure. Understanding the difference between these two will be important later.
Dissecting Biology
So back to what I said in the intro: Biology is one jargon-heavy, complex subject. It has all these new terms, words and concepts which you’re just supposed to memorise? But now we can use our understanding of etymology to break down these words into significantly easier building blocks to memorise and apply.
So here's the secret: The supposed ‘difficult’ biology terms you dread aren’t even that hard to memorise. They’re actually a combination of extremely easy and simple words from ancient Greek and Latin following a romantic structure. If you can properly understand the building blocks of the etymology of these words, biology won’t be that hard to actually memorise and understand.
But, before we dive into this, we need to first be able to use interpretive language and fill in blanks by ourselves. When we break down the etymology of these biological terms, we need to also interpret the gaps because we’ll be getting their meaning in raw form. So please keep in mind a list of connecting words such as
-Of/ Of The
-With
-Inside/In
-From
Let’s break it down into a simple example first
Hemoglobin
Hemo
Greek = haima
Meaning = Blood
Globin
Latin = globus
Meaning = Sphere
“In” suffix = Scientific terminology for protein
Globin = Sphere protein
So our direct translation should be: Blood Sphere Protein
This doesn’t make sense at all. But that’s why I said to remember our Romantic language structure, if we flip it around from our Germanic structure it turns into
Protein Sphere Blood
Then we can piece together the final part, and using our connector words which seems appropriate
Protein Sphere of the Blood
And it essentially tells us the answer for us. Hemoglobin is the protein of the blood.
Example 2
Dermatitis
Derma
Latin = derma
Meaning = Skin
itis
Greek = nosos
Meaning = Inflammation
Direct Translation: Skin Inflammation
Flipped romanticised version: Inflammation Skin
Interpreted: Inflammation of the skin
And just like that, we decoded what dermatitis is using etymology. Seems a lot easier to memorise, right? Now instead of brute force memorisation you can properly remember the breakdown of the words and know now just off the word alone it is inflammation of the skin.
Example 3
Intracellular
Intra
Latin = intra
Meaning = Inside
Cell
Latin = cella
Meaning = Cell
-ular
Suffix = related to
Direct Translation: Inside Cell Related
Flipped Romanticised Version: Related Inside Cell
Interpreted: Inside the cell
You get it now, right? It’s a formulaic process to break down the definition of words without having to brute force, memorise them word by word and pairing it with a definition. Essentially just mix and match. Unfortunately, we need to actually study the etymology and know its meaning before we can finally break down these words just at a glance. So here is a list of words I highly recommend you learn.
BECAUSE OF THE CHARACTER LIMIT I COULDNT POST THE TABLES SO IlL JUST PASTE IT IN
Brute-Force memorisation VS Comprehension
But why does it work? If we dive into neuroscience, it goes back to how our neurons work with each other. When you attempt to brute force something, you’re using working memory which only creates a surface-level form of storing said information. The stuff you’re trying to remember is held along short-term pathways. While you can eventually memorise it, it must be repeated extremely often to ensure you are capable of keeping it inside your mind. This also increases the big risk of when you do take an exam: your mind blanking. Your brain isn’t just a shelf you can place things on and come back to get. It prefers to make connections and create a sense of familiarity. Compare this to deconstructing the words into your previously existing knowledge, it activates deep semantic processing. It is by far the most efficient way of memorising and then recalling knowledge. It is the focus on genuine comprehension of the stimuli and connecting it to any other previous existing knowledge which you have. The former difficult part in achieving deep semantic processing was finding knowledge you already have to link back to the concept you are trying to memorise. Luckily, because of our lesson in etymology, it is already done for us. After understanding something, our brains link together multiple regions to further drill it into our minds, making it a significantly stronger connection. Because of our pre-existing knowledge of etymology, the vocabulary we are forced to memorise suddenly becomes easier than ever. The definitions and processes of the word now are digestible blocks which sit comfortably in our heads. Your brain’s overall memory is like a tree with many branches. Trying to brute-force a concept is like trying to build an extension branch to the tree out of thin air. Why would you ever do that? It’ll be time-consuming, end up flimsy and won’t even last after a while. When you utilize deep semantic connection, you’re growing smaller branches on top of the pre-existing ones already. It is so much easier, a lot less time-consuming and can actually be built in the future too.
Conclusion
I hope from reading this, you realize that Biology isn’t some uphill subject of endless flashcards and revision. The formerly startling vocabulary now doesn’t seem so terrifying, it’s just blocks of Greek and Latin mashed together in deceptively simple jargon. It opens up a new perspective on biology, it’s now a game of decoding and connections as opposed to the painstakingly egregious process of notes, revision and application you’d enslave yourself with. The goal of me writing this was to help you in the complex world of biology. If I managed to at least help one person read this with my etymology guide, then all the effort was well worth it. A lot of people skip over etymology as it seems like a niche only appealing to linguistic nerds, but few people realize it walks hand in hand with the study of life.
Thanks for reading
-Maxilla
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