Getting The Terminology Straight

(My mom has just started taking a Medical Terminology course at the community college, and is having to learn a lot of new terminology. She hasn’t taking anything science related since high school.)

Mom: “I have spent the last three hours dissecting medical terms.”

Me: “Which is your favourite?”

Mom: “They are mostly diseases, so none of them are nice.”

Me: “True, but they usually have funny direct translations or pronunciations.”

Mom: “Some are way off, though. Like heterogeneous. It means pertaining to a different formation.”

Me: “Yes, I knew that. Hetero means different/opposite.”

Mom: “I thought hetero would be normal…like heterosexual.”