International Scientific Vocabulary (or ISV) is a form of vocabulary comprising scientific and specialized words whose language of origin may or may not be certain, but which are in current use in several modern languages. The name "International Scientific Vocabulary" was first used by Philip Gove in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1961).[1] As noted by Crystal,[2] science is an especially productive field for new coinages.
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 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 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)[3] 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." [4] 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.
McArthur[5] 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, Filipino, and other Asian languages. According to McArthur, no other set of words and morphemes is so international.
The ISV is one of the concepts behind the development and standardization of 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 because 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.[6]
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This is a list of scientific words and word roots which have different meanings from in the original languages.
| word or root | scientific meaning | original language | original word | original meaning | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| capno- | carbon dioxide | Greek | καπνος | smoke | |
| electro- | electricity | Greek | ἠλεκτρον | amber | via static electricity from rubbing amber |
| thorax | chest (anatomy) | Greek | θωραξ | breastplate | |
| toxo- | poison | Greek | τοξον | bow (weapon) | via "poisoned arrow". It means "bow" in Toxodon |
| macro- | big | Greek | μακρός | long | |
| In names of biological taxa | |||||
| -ceras | ammonite | Greek | κερας | horn | via resemblance to a ram's horn |
| -crinus | crinoid | Greek | κρινος | lily | extracted from name "crinoid" |
| grapto- | graptolite | Greek | γραπτο- | writing | via resemblance of fossil |
| -gyrinus | labyrinthodont | Greek | γυρινος | tadpole | |
| -lestes | predator | Greek | λῃστης | robber | |
| -mimus | ornithomimid | Greek | μιμος | mime | extracted from name Ornithomimus = "bird mimic" |
| -mys | rodent | Greek | μυς | mouse | including in Phoberomys |
| -saurus | reptile, dinosaur | Greek | σαυρος | lizard | |
| -stega, -stege | stegocephalian | Greek | στεγη | roof | via their cranium roofs as fossils |
| -suchus, -champsus |
crocodilian | Ancient Egyptian |
σουχος, χαμψαι (pl.) |
as quoted by ancient Greek authors as Egyptian words for "crocodile" |
|
| therium | usually mammal | Greek | θηριον | beast, animal | |
| Names of bones | |||||
| femur | thighbone | Latin | femur | thigh | Classical Latin genitive often "feminis" |
| fibula | (a leg bone) | Latin | fibula | brooch | tibia & fibula looked like a brooch and its pin |
| radius | (an arm bone) | Latin | radius | rod | |
| tibia | shinbone | Latin | tibia | flute | via animal tibias modified into flutes |
| ulna | (an arm bone) | Latin | ulna | elbow, cubit measure | |
Another difference between scientific terms and classical Latin and Greek is that many compounded scientific terms do not elide the inflection vowel at the end of a root before another root or prefix that starts with a vowel, e.g.:
But elision happens in:
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stock | retire | vm
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