#“phag”ia

[somepoetwannabe]

Alright. I completely understand the complaints over food places giving you a glass of ice with a drop of your drink. I completely get it. It's wrong and they're stealing your money. HOWEVER. If my drink doesn't make the sound of millions of little ice chunks hitting the side of the glass and I don't get to crunch on them after, I am not going to enjoy it the same

[chimaeracabra]

Medical Terminology: Basic Roots and Common Suffixes

Root Words:

Acr/o (extremities)

Cardi/o (heart)

Cyan/o (blue)

Cyt/o (cell)

Dermat/o (skin)

Duoden/o (duodenum)

Electr/o (electrical)

Embol/o (blocking)

Eti/o (cause)

Gastr/o (stomach)

Gram/o (record)

Leuko (white)

Megal/o (enlarged)

Path/o (disease)

Aden/o (gland)

Arthr/o (joint)

Carcin/o (malignancy)

Cele/o, (hernia)

Cephal/o (head)

Chondr/o (cartilage)

Cost/o (ribs)

Dent/o (tooth)

Emes/is (vomiting)

Hist/o (tissue)

Laryng/o (larynx)

Lip/o (fat)

Malac/o (soft)

Morph/o (structure of)

muc/o (mucos)

Onc/o (tumor)

Ost/o oste/o (bone)

Plast/o (repair)

Phag/o (hunger)

Phas/o (speech)

Trach/e (trachea)

Troph/o (development)

Thromb/o (blood clot)

Suffixes

 -algia (pain)

-ectomy (excision of)

-itis (inflammation)

-ologist (one who studies; a specialist)

-ology (study of)

-osis, -a, -y (condition of, usually abnormal)

-ostomy (forming a new opening)

-otomy (incision into)

-tome (instrument that cuts)

-al, -ar, -ic, (of, or pertaining to)

-old (resembling)

-oma (tumor)

-ism (medical condition)

-trophy (growth, nourishment)

Prefixes

En-, endo- (in, inside, within)

Ex-,ex/o- (outside, out)

Hyper-(excessive)

Hypo-(under)

Inter-(between)

Poly- multiple

Tachy-fast

Brady-slow

Dys-difficult

More Root Words

Abdomen/o (abdomen)

Cephal/o (head)

Chol/e (bile, gall)

Cocc/I (coccus)

Crani/o (cranium, skull)

Cyst/o (bladder, sac)

Dipl/o (double)

Hydro (water)

Lith/o (stone, calculus)

Metr/o, meter (measure)

Ot/o (ear)

Pelv/i (pelvis)

Phob/ia (fear)

Py/o (pus)

Rhin/o (nose)

Staphyl/o (grape)

Strept/o (chain)

Therap/o (treatment)

Thorac/o (thorax)

More Suffixes

-ar (pertaining to)

-centesis (puncture of a cavity)

genesis, gen/o (produce, originate)

-meter (measuring instrument)

-orrhea (flow, discharge)

More Prefixes

Ab- (away from) 

Ad- (toward)

[seo1code-blog]

What is a valid #Hreflang ?

What is a valid Hreflang?

Sometimes users of our Hreflang testing tool see an error like this and get baffled:

Invalid hreflang (en_US) found in HTML.

Why is en_US incorrect? Because the correct way to write a language code is with dashes, not underscores. The correct value is en-US.

What are valid values for Hreflang?

A valid hreflang can be specified as:

A 2-character language code (e.g. “en“), or

a combination of language and region code (e.g. “en-US“), or

a combination of language and script code (e.g. “sr-Cyrl” or “sr-Latn“), or

a combination of language, script and region codes (e.g. “sr-hu-Latn“)

A special value of “x-default”, used for country/language selectors and redirector pages. These pages are not specific to any language/locale. Users either choose their language/country (e.g. from a map or dropdown box), or the website uses the IP address of the visitor to this page and automatically redirects them to the page that is appropriate for them.

Examples of invalid Hreflang

Here are some examples of invalid language codes found recently by the online testing tool. See if you can figure out why these codes are incorrect:

en_US: Underscore used instead of hyphen

en-en: The second “en” is incorrect because “en” is not a valid region code.

en-UK: “uk” is not a valid region code. Use “en-GB”.

us-en: The order is inverted. It should be “en-US”.

ua: ua is not a language code. It is a region code. So it is incorrect to use it by itself, i.e. without a language code.

cmn-CN: The country code for China is correct (this page was in Chinese and the URL was a .cn URL. The language code is incorrect.

Valid Codes for Reference

Valid Language Codes (2-character ISO-639-1 Codes)

A list of valid 2-character language codes is as follows (the format is ISO 639-1): aa, ab, ae, af, ak, am, an, ar, as, av, ay, az, ba, be, bg, bh, bi, bm, bn, bo, br, bs, ca, ce, ch, co, cr, cs, cu, cv, cy, da, de, dv, dz, ee, el, en, eo, es, et, eu, fa, ff, fi, fj, fo, fr, fy, ga, gd, gl, gn, gu, gv, ha, he, hi, ho, hr, ht, hu, hy, hz, ia, id, ie, ig, ii, ik, io, is, it, iu, ja, jv, ka, kg, ki, kj, kk, kl, km, kn, ko, kr, ks, ku, kv, kw, ky, la, lb, lg, li, ln, lo, lt, lu, lv, mg, mh, mi, mk, ml, mn, mr, ms, mt, my, na, nb, nd, ne, ng, nl, nn, no, nr, nv, ny, oc, oj, om, or, os, pa, pi, pl, ps, pt, qu, rm, rn, ro, ru, rw, sa, sc, sd, se, sg, si, sk, sl, sm, sn, so, sq, sr, ss, st, su, sv, sw, ta, te, tg, th, ti, tk, tl, tn, to, tr, ts, tt, tw, ty, ug, uk, ur, uz, ve, vi, vo, wa, wo, xh, yi, yo, za, zh, zu

Valid Region Codes (2-character ISO-3166-1 Codes)

And here are all the valid region codes (ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 format; note that the code for the United Kingdom is “GB”, not “UK”): AD, AE, AF, AG, AI, AL, AM, AO, AQ, AR, AS, AT, AU, AW, AX, AZ, BA, BB, BD, BE, BF, BG, BH, BI, BJ, BL, BM, BN, BO, BQ, BR, BS, BT, BV, BW, BY, BZ, CA, CC, CD, CF, CG, CH, CI, CK, CL, CM, CN, CO, CR, CU, CV, CW, CX, CY, CZ, DE, DJ, DK, DM, DO, DZ, EC, EE, EG, EH, ER, ES, ET, FI, FJ, FK, FM, FO, FR, GA, GB, GD, GE, GF, GG, GH, GI, GL, GM, GN, GP, GQ, GR, GS, GT, GU, GW, GY, HK, HM, HN, HR, HT, HU, ID, IE, IL, IM, IN, IO, IQ, IR, IS, IT, JE, JM, JO, JP, KE, KG, KH, KI, KM, KN, KP, KR, KW, KY, KZ, LA, LB, LC, LI, LK, LR, LS, LT, LU, LV, LY, MA, MC, MD, ME, MF, MG, MH, MK, ML, MM, MN, MO, MP, MQ, MR, MS, MT, MU, MV, MW, MX, MY, MZ, NA, NC, NE, NF, NG, NI, NL, NO, NP, NR, NU, NZ, OM, PA, PE, PF, PG, PH, PK, PL, PM, PN, PR, PS, PT, PW, PY, QA, RE, RO, RS, RU, RW, SA, SB, SC, SD, SE, SG, SH, SI, SJ, SK, SL, SM, SN, SO, SR, SS, ST, SV, SX, SY, SZ, TC, TD, TF, TG, TH, TJ, TK, TL, TM, TN, TO, TR, TT, TV, TW, TZ, UA, UG, UM, US, UY, UZ, VA, VC, VE, VG, VI, VN, VU, WF, WS, YE, YT, ZA, ZM, ZW

Valid Script Codes (4-character ISO 15924 Codes)

All valid script codes are as follows (the format is ISO 15924): Adlm, Afak, Aghb, Ahom, Arab, Aran, Armi, Armn, Avst, Bali, Bamu, Bass, Batk, Beng, Bhks, Blis, Bopo, Brah, Brai, Bugi, Buhd, Cakm, Cans, Cari, Cham, Cher, Cirt, Copt, Cprt, Cyrl, Cyrs, Deva, Dsrt, Dupl, Egyd, Egyh, Egyp, Elba, Ethi, Geok, Geor, Glag, Goth, Gran, Grek, Gujr, Guru, Hang, Hani, Hano, Hans, Hant, Hatr, Hebr, Hira, Hluw, Hmng, Hrkt, Hung, Inds, Ital, Java, Jpan, Jurc, Kali, Kana, Khar, Khmr, Khoj, Kitl, Kits, Knda, Kore, Kpel, Kthi, Lana, Laoo, Latf, Latg, Latn, Leke, Lepc, Limb, Lina, Linb, Lisu, Loma, Lyci, Lydi, Mahj, Mand, Mani, Marc, Maya, Mend, Merc, Mero, Mlym, Modi, Mong, Moon, Mroo, Mtei, Mult, Mymr, Narb, Nbat, Nkgb, Nkoo, Nshu, Ogam, Olck, Orkh, Orya, Osge, Osma, Palm, Pauc, Perm, Phag, Phli, Phlp, Phlv, Phnx, Plrd, Prti, Rjng, Roro, Runr, Samr, Sara, Sarb, Saur, Sgnw, Shaw, Shrd, Sidd, Sind, Sinh, Sora, Sund, Sylo, Syrc, Syre, Syrj, Syrn, Tagb, Takr, Tale, Talu, Taml, Tang, Tavt, Telu, Teng, Tfng, Tglg, Thaa, Thai, Tibt, Tirh, Ugar, Vaii, Visp, Wara, Wole, Xpeo, Xsux, Yiii

[englishisland]

鍛鍊你的「背英文」能耐

文/曾泰元

我們希臘文的構詞成分已經堂堂進入第四講，各位讀者朋友是否覺得漸入佳境，每一期都很���待？還是依然有��顯的障礙，心裡直犯嘀咕，覺得難以克服？

期待？那最好。有些頭痛？在所難免。畢竟，有誰總是一帆風順、諸事盡如自己所願的呢？人生就是如此吧！C’est la vie!

依往例，我們先重點複習一下，再正式開講，溫故而知新嘛！到目前為止，正式介紹過的幾個希臘文構詞成分如下，隨後各附上一個講過的例子：

cardio-（心）【cardiology（心臟科）】 cephalo-（頭）【cephalopod（頭足類動物）】 encephalo-（腦）【encephalitis（腦炎）】 cranio-（顱骨）【cranium（顱骨）】 arterio-（動脈）【arteriosclerosis（動脈硬化症）】 ven-（靜脈）【intravenous（靜脈內的）】（註：源自拉丁文，非希臘文）

意猶未盡的，請回頭翻翻前三期的雜誌，我們繼續往下看。

心臟、動脈、靜脈裡面有血液，「血液」的希臘文構詞成分有幾個拼法：hemo-、hemato-、-emia（-em- “血” + -ia “病症”）。這個血液的構詞成分繁衍出一個比較龐雜的家族，成員單字比較多，我一樣介紹幾個比較常見的。

hemophilia（血友病）【hemo-（血）+ -phil-（愛）+ -ia（病症）】字面是「愛血病」，指的當然不是吸血鬼(vampire)或水蛭(leech)的特質，而是人受傷後就血流不止的「血友病」。補充一下，字中的-phil-（愛）還出現在許許多多的其他字眼，如philosophy（哲學），字面為「愛智慧」之意，哲學就是愛智之學，Sophia這個名字的本義就是「智慧」。

anemia（貧血）【an-（無）+ -emia（血病）】字面是「無血病」，但不是我們望文生義的沒有血的病，而是紅血球(red blood cell)缺乏的貧血。希臘文的字首an-（無）以前介紹過，不過是以a-的型態出現（如atom「原子」，本義為「不可切的」），至於何時用a-何時用an-？後面的成分若以子音開始，用a-，如a-tom，後面的成分若以母音開始，用an-，如an-emia。

leukemia（白血病）【leuko-（白）+ -emia（血病）】字面直譯就是白血病，這當然不是血液變白的病，而是白血球（white blood cell）異常增多的疾病，俗稱血癌。leuko-（白）這個構詞成分將來會正式介紹，這裡先不補充。

hemorrhage（大出血）【hemo-（血）+ -rrhage（大量流出）】大出血，就是因為血管破裂，而導致血液大量流出。cerebral hemorrhage（腦溢血）是大腦的（cerebral）的大出血（hemorrhage）。這個cerebral來自拉丁文，我們在此不深究。hemorrhage的-rrhage，最核心的成分是-rrh-（流出；分泌），-age只是名詞字尾（如passage = pass + -age）。-rrh- 還出現在其他字眼裡，如diarrhea（腹瀉；拉肚子），這個我們以後再談。

hematology（血液科；血液學）【hemato-（血）+ -ology（學問；專業）】這是研究血液（包含骨髓）的專業學問，也是治療這方面疾病的專科。

事實上，這個構詞成分還衍生出許多單字，雖然這些單字不算偏，不過我還是就此打住，以免嚇壞讀者，呷緊弄破碗。

這一期介紹的第二個構詞成分是dermat-（有時作-derm-），意思是「皮；皮膚」。我們皮膚有毛病，比方說有皮膚炎（dermatitis），就要去醫院看皮膚科（dermatology）。

上一期我們曾經介紹過subcutaneous（皮下的），我當時說過這個單字來自拉丁文。它在這裡有個同義詞hypodermic（hypo- “在……下面” + -derm- “皮膚” + -ic “形容詞字尾”），而這個hypodermic則來自希臘文。

pachyderm（厚皮動物）也值得一提。厚皮動物包括大象（elephant）、河馬（hippo）、犀牛（rhino）等皮（-derm-）厚（pachy-）的大型動物。

皮下面有肉，「肉」的希臘文構詞成分是sarco-。sarcoma（肉瘤）是體內組織細胞病變而長成的瘤，一般是惡性的。-oma是一個代表「腫瘤」的構詞成分，只作字尾，常見的例子如lipoma（脂肪瘤）、carcinoma（癌，即惡性腫瘤，為cancer的另一種說法）。

sarcophagus（石棺）是西方古文明的一種石製棺槨，上有雕塑和銘文，小說、電影裡常會提到。據說石灰石的材質會腐蝕棺內的屍體，好像把肉(sarco-)給吃掉(-phag-)一樣，故名。我們的食道(esophagus)就有代表「吃」(-phag-)這個成分，字尾的-us是陽性名詞的字尾。

大家或許有所不知，諷刺、嘲諷、挖苦的sarcasm就有這個肉(sarco-)的成分。諷刺很傷人，彷彿把我們的肉撕開來，讓人痛苦不堪。形容詞是sarcastic。

不知不覺中，我又介紹了好幾個希臘文的構詞成分，以及這些成分衍生出來的單字。有點難嗎？或許，不過吃得苦中苦，方為人上人。英文要好，詞彙量是個重要關鍵。Hang in there! 撐著點！

本文收錄於英語島English Island 2017年3月號