ABSTRACT
For its time, Greek medicine was the most advanced in the world. Although many of their medical theories have been proven false, the Greeks’ attention to detail and careful observations set the standard for medical practice for hundreds of years. The Romans learned from the Greeks and, as a result, much of the medical terminology they used has become part of our medical and body vocabulary.
The five senses are among the few native English words that we use every day. Smell comes from the Old English smyllan; taste comes from the Middle English tasten; hear comes from the Old English hieren; touch comes from the Middle English touchen; and see comes from the Old English seon. Words for objects or concepts that are physically closest to us, or that have to do directly with our personal being, tend to stay our own in origin. If English is so willing to adopt or borrow foreign words, why do certain categories of words remain our own after hundreds of years of mixing with foreign languages?
