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Of all the sciences, none is more indebted to the Greek for its etymological foundations than medicine. Therefore this book, which presents two comprehensive alphabetical views of the Greek element as a substrate for the English language, has especial significance for physicians. Part I lists English words and roots of Greek origin together with the Greek forms from which they are derived, while part II records the Greek forms entering into our language in conjunction with representative English words to which they have given rise. The English list is by intention representative and not complete, covering about 130,000 out of approximately 1,000,000 words of Greek origin that the English language contains. These enormous totals are the result of a steadily increasing hybridization. As the editor points out, command of about 200 combining forms makes understandable scores of thousands of English words. The author's purpose in publishing this work is to
The Greek Element in English Words.. JAMA. 1931;96(20):1724. doi:10.1001/jama.1931.02720460070036