Introduction
This topic covers the Latin prepositions that take the accusative or the ablative case, and how their meaning and case relate to the terms of medical language. A preposition is a word that shows the relation of a noun to other words, such as place, direction or cause. In Latin the case that follows the preposition is fixed for each preposition, and a few prepositions take either case with a change of meaning.
Prepositions with the accusative
The accusative is used with prepositions that express direction towards, extension through, or the position of motion across. The common ones are:
- ad (to, towards), ante (before, in front of), apud (near, at the house of), adversus and contra (against), circum and circa (around), extra (outside), infra (below), inter (between, among), intra (within), per (through), post (after, behind), praeter (beyond, except), prope (near), propter (because of), supra (above), trans (across), ultra (beyond), versus (towards, placed after the noun), usque (up to).
Medical examples of these prepositions as prefixes or in phrases: intracranial (within the skull), infraorbital (below the orbit), supraclavicular (above the clavicle), intercostal (between the ribs), extracellular (outside the cell), transfusion (carrying across), ad in adrenal (near the kidney, from ad renes).