Margaret Hayon wrote this for Samantha:
Disease Glossary) - hope it will help:
dysarthria: difficult, poorly articulated speech.
dyskinesia: abnormal involuntary movement.
dysphagia: difficulty in swallowing.
dystonia: slow twisting involuntary movemeent, associated with
forceful muscle contractions or spasms.
(these terms are all etymologically derived from Greek - any classical Greek
scholars out there?)
Well since I had ancient Greek in high school I can try (in fact you can find
these info's in any Webster or similar...)
dis- is a prefix that indicates "lack of..." or "wrong, erroneous ..."
- Kinesia means movement, (see for ex. kinetic) hence dyskinesia = wrong (i.e.
involuntary movement)
- phagia indicates the act of eating
- tonic : well you know about muscle tone....
then the words get a more definite meaning with the usage (in the case given
from the medical profession)
I have some doubts about "arthria" since in my recollection arthr... is said
about limbs (arms and legs..) but I do not have access to any large Webster at
present.
Sorry, Marco Bozzo
