Latest English-Chinese Medical Dictionary

Author: Chief Editor: Chen Zaijin et al
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-09-01
Features: Preface to the Total Proofreading
There are quite a few medical dictionaries on the market, but for medical students and professionals, it always feels like there is still a lack of a truly comprehensive, up-to-date, and meticulously compiled dictionary that would make other versions unnecessary. A few years ago, Chairman Xiao of Huaxin Publishing Company came to me, expressing his willingness to invest unlimited resources and time to publish a dictionary truly needed by the medical and nursing community, hoping that I would take charge of the project. I have always had great confidence in the quality of Huaxin Publishing’s products, but due to my busy schedule, I was afraid I could not undertake such a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. Therefore, I recommended Dr. Lai Hongxi, the current Director of Pediatric Surgery at National Taiwan University Hospital, as the chief organizer, while I took on the role of total proofreader. I also invited 16 physicians—Chen Zaijin, Yuan Ruihuang, Yan Zhaoxiong, Shi Chonghong, Chen Weipeng, Liu Siyuan, Xu Minyao, Hou Shouxian, Xie Ruidun, Tang Ruiping, Lin Jichang, Zhang Quanwei, Weng Zhaoriji, He Yijun, and Zeng Yonghui—to each be responsible for one to two letters (the academic backgrounds and experiences of the physicians can be found on the chief editor’s page). Each physician is an outstanding expert in their respective fields, with specialized knowledge. Everyone felt that this work was meaningful and was willing to take time out of their busy schedules to contribute to the legacy of medicine.
Over the past few years, I have often heard of physicians searching through various reference books to find the definition of a term or seen others spend days and nights working on only a few pages. With such a rigorous attitude, the dictionary that has been compiled should be reliable. Now, this dictionary is about to be published, and I believe it possesses the following advantages:
1. Up-to-date information: Terms that became popular in the 1990s, such as Prozac, or Nobel Prize winners in medicine and physiology selected in the 1990s, such as Krebs, can all be found in this dictionary.
2. Meticulous compilation: Due to the participants’ rigorous approach, errors in spelling or typos are expected to be absent from this dictionary.
3. Comprehensive coverage: The English-Chinese Medical Dictionary includes over 200,000 entries, encompassing all important medical terms in both Chinese and Western medicine. The Concise English-Chinese Medical Dictionary selects important and commonly used terms from the English-Chinese Medical Dictionary, with over 100,000 entries, allowing readers to choose one or both based on their individual needs.
4. Segmented word roots: The segmentation of word roots is a trend in modern major dictionaries, but so far, only the Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, published in the United States, is available in the medical field. Medical terms are often longer than general words, and dividing them into roots can make them easier to understand and read.
5. KK phonetic symbols: Easy-to-read and recognize American phonetic symbols.
Although this dictionary has the above advantages, there may still be other features waiting to be discovered by users. However, it is inevitable that there are certain shortcomings and errors, and future revisions will rely on the users’ generous feedback to make this dictionary even better.