Hypothesis, analysis and synthesis, it's all Greek to me

Abstract

The linguistic foundations of science and technology include many terms that have been borrowed from ancient languages. In the case of terms with origins in the Greek language, the modern meaning can often differ significantly from the original one. Here we use the PubMed database to demonstrate the prevalence of words of Greek origin in the language of modern science, and call for scientists to exercise care when coining new terms.

One‐carbon metabolism, folate, zinc and translation

“…The details and functional rationale of the corresponding networks remain, however, to be deciphered. A starting point for experimental exploration of this crucial role of zinc might use gliotoxin, a mycotoxin likely to act as a zinc scavenger, a pseudargyrophore [to use the Greek root for zinc, see Iliopoulos et al (2019)] as a way to modulate zinc availability, translation and the overall energy metabolism (Seo et al , 2019).…”

Science, method and critical thinking

“…Typically, words such as analysis and synthesis must be understood (and the idea of what a ‘concept’ is not widely shared). It must also be remembered that the way the scientific vocabulary kept creating neologisms in the most creative times of science was based on using the Ancient Greek language, and for a good reason: a considerable advantage of that unsaid rule is that this makes scientific objects and concepts prominent for scientists from all over the world, while precluding implicit domination by any country over the others when science is at stake (Iliopoulos et al, 2019 ). Unfortunately, and this demonstrates how the domination of an ignorant subset of the research community gains ground, this rule is now seldom followed.…”