Uro-words making history: Ureter and urethra

• Published in: The Prostate 2010-06, Vol.70 (9), p.952-958
• Main Authors: Marx, Franz Josef, Karenberg, Axel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: anatomy; Biological and medical sciences; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; history of medicine; History, 15th Century; History, 16th Century; History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; History, Ancient; History, Medieval; Humans; Medical sciences; Nephrology. Urinary tract diseases; terminology; Terminology as Topic; Ureter; Urethra; Urology - history
• ISSN: 0270-4137; 1097-0045
• DOI: 10.1002/pros.21129

PURPOSE We comprehensively review the history of the terms “ureter” and “urethra” from 700 BC to the present. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using a case study approach, ancient medical texts were analyzed to clarify the etymology and use of both terms. In addition, selected anatomy textbooks from the 15th to 17th centuries were searched to identify and compare descriptions, illustrations, and various expressions used by contemporary authors to designate the upper and lower parts of the urinary tract. RESULTS The Ancient Greek words “ureter” and “urethra” appear early in Hippocratic and Aristotelian writings. However, both terms designated what we today call the urethra. It was only with increasing anatomical knowledge in Greek medical texts after the 1st century AD that definitions of these words evolved similar to those we employ today. Numerous synonyms were used which served as a basis for translation into Arabic and later Latin during the transfer of ancient knowledge to the cultures of the medieval period. When Greek original texts and their Arabic–Latin version were compared during the Renaissance, this led to terminological confusion which could only be gradually overcome. Around the year 1600, the use of the latinized terms “ureter” and “urethra” became generally accepted. The dissemination of these terms in modern national languages and the emergence of clinical derivatives complete this historical development. CONCLUSIONS The history of the terms “ureter” and “urethra” is exemplary of the difficulties with which the development of a precise urologic terminology had to struggle. The story behind the words also clarifies why even today we still have imprecise or misleading terms. Prostate 70: 952–958, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.