Compound and non-compound disease names in the 18th century – A reflection of the knowledge available at the time

Abstract

This paper analyses the names of diseases of composite structure, taken from three medical works from the 18th century. These names were collected because the same texts present alternative, simple or derived names of classical origin. Although the authors opt to use compound names throughout their works, these have ultimately disappeared from medical discourse. Conversely, the names rejected by the authors currently prevail as disease names. It became clear that compound names have a compositional meaning that describes the disease. In a time before reflection on technical discourse and terminology, or even before the institution of medicine as a science, intelligibility could have been a determining factor.