Ligų pavadinimai "Lietuvos ūkininko" priede "Sveikata" (1909-1928)
The names of diseases in "Lietuvos ūkininkas" supplement "Sveikata" (1909-1928)

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the names of diseases in "Lietuvos ūkininkas" supplement "Sveikata", which was published between 1909-1928. In respect of structure, one-word and complex names of diseases could be differentiated. Complex names are two-word, three-word or multi-word names. In respect of origin, names of diseases can be Lithuanian, of foreign origin or hybrid. One-word names most often are Lithuanian. There are quite a lot of international words, many of them have Lithuanian equivalents. The purity of the medical terminology is diminished by frequent barbarisms. Most of terms in "Sveikata" are two-word or three-word names of diseases, most of which are made from Lithuanian elements. There are also quite a lot of names of mixed origin when one element (or two) is Lithuanian and another one - foreign (more often it is an international word, less frequently - barbarism). The names of diseases and names of their groups with the word liga (disease) are discussed separately. The abundance of two-word and three-word names of diseases reflects the development of terminology during the period examined. Despite some cases of the orthographic variations, unsettled phonetics, grammar and other things, most of the names of diseases in "Sveikata" are quite regular. Names of diseases (especially two-word terms and most often only their elements) have plentiful synonyms and variants. Since the supplement "Sveikata" was published with the objective of popularising medical knowledge and was aimed at the general public, the authors of it did not make a special effort to avoid synonyms and sometimes were even not able to try - this was the stage when not only medical terminology was developing, but also common language was not fully settled. The names of diseases in "Sveikata" already have the characteristic features of scientific terminology - most names are given with their Latin equivalents, specific concepts are named using pronominal forms of adjectives and participles. The names of diseases in "Sveikata" are an interesting and valuable material in a historical respect. "Sveikata" not only continued the job of popularisation of medical knowledge, which was started about one hundred and fifty years ago, but undoubtedly developed and improved it, therefore during about twenty years when this supplement was being published the medical terminology became more pure, precise and scientific, though still quite variable.

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