Question

Sometimes a suffix functions independently as a medical term. give two examples of suffixes that are also terms, and explain how they are used.

Answer 1

The answer would be –genesis and –gram. 

Suffixes that have a Greek or Latin roots and that are used to combine with other words or parts of words are not called suffixes, these kind of affixes are called combining forms.

One combing form is –genesis.

As an independent medical term, this means the origin of something in medicine. When a doctor talks about the genesis of a contagion, he or she is speaking of the point of origin of a contagion.

-genesis used as a suffix, can indicate a particular process or pathogen. Example is parthenogenesis.

One combining form is –gram.

As an independent medical term, gram indicated the metric weight of an object as a unit of mass. If nurses talk about how much serving of food, they are talking about it in grams.

-gram signifies something written down. Example is pictogram.