Precision is another property of Greek, which means that each word has a single, precise and specific mental meaning, and therefore does not run the risk of being confused with any other word..
Therefore, a basic prerequisite for accuracy is clarity, which, especially in the sciences and particularly in medicine, is a necessary prerequisite for diagnosis and, therefore, correct treatment.… That is why Galen in his book "about the symptoms of difference" emphasizes that to avoid ambiguity there should be only one name for each thing, indirectly stating that, especially in medicine, the existence of synonyms is prohibited.
He specifically writes that «But above all, for each thing, a name, so that neither the ambiguities that arise and sophistry are created in the language despite the homonymy, nor any thing is omitted.· (Galen, "On the Symptoms of Different Types, Book 7,46,1-12"). He also emphasizes that it is not allowed. (we do not forgive), to leave everything without definition, that is, without the terminology related to it: "We do not forgive any omissions that are unspecified." – Galen’s “On the Symptoms of Different Diseases” (De Symptomatum different liber), 7,46,11-3.
Regarding the way scientific vocabulary is created, French lexicographers Jean Bouffattigue and Anne-Marie Deltieu, in their excellent work entitled "the Greek roots in the French language", emphasize the following: "The foundations and equipment of scientific vocabulary came from Greece, even in Antiquity." However, borrowings from Greek continued even after the death of Greek science, and not just out of habit. They continued, because the Greek language lends itself in an admirable way, much more than Latin, to the creation of new words according to needs. Science was advancing and the demands were enormous.".
And further down they state: "The Greek language, as spoken and written in antiquity, no longer provided sufficient words for an increasing number of concepts. The idea then arose of using the methods that the Greeks had used to increase their vocabulary.".
The structure of their language allowed them to compose words in a simple and efficient way. They imitated them.. They tried to imagine what the Greeks would do if they had to name the new concept or the new object."They created a new Greek word, which they transcribed into French (or English or German or Italian, because the French were not always the first to do this work)."
The unforgettable French academic and Hellenist Jacqueline de Romy She had also noticed, from her many years of engagement with ancient Greek literature, how much foreigners resort to the sterile Greek "linguistic water" and had said: "They turn to Greek to name modern discoveries and inventions... We breathe the air of Greece every moment, without knowing it."»And it concludes: «Ancient Greece offers us a language, which I will say once again is universal.»“And the Greek language possesses,” we add, “absolute accuracy.”
That is why the expression is well-known, which Anglo-Americans use when they are trying to find the appropriate and precise word for a certain concept and which was first written by Professor Oliver Taplin in his book "Greek Fire": "The Greeks will have a word for this".
Photo By Sharon Mollerus – originally posted to Flickr as How Cool Is Writing?, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7633385 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
