Latin abbreviations

The Subscription represents the directions to the dispenser and indicates the type of dosage form or the number of dosage units. For compounded prescriptions, the subscription is written using English or Latin abbreviations. A few examples are provided as follows ... 

Q.D. Latin abbreviation for every day The period after the Q has sometimes been mistaken for an I, and the drug has been given QID (four times daily) rather than daily. 

Q.O.D. Latin abbreviation for every other day Misinterpreted as QD (daily) or QID (four times daily). If the O is poorly written, it looks like a period or I . 

HS Half strength Misinterpreted as the Latin abbreviation HS (hour of sleep). 

AU, AS, AD Latin abbreviation for both ears left ear right ear Misinterpreted as the Latin abbreviation OU (both eyes) OS (left eye) OD (right eye)... 

Table 1.2.1 Some commonly used Latin abbreviations in prescription writing ...

Some elements such as gold and silver have simple names, but are known by their Latin abbreviations in the periodic table. The symbol for gold—Au—comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold. The Latin word for silver is argentum, which explains why its symbol in the table is Ag. 

Traditional extemporaneous prescription-writing art, defining drug, base, adjuvant, corrective, flavouring and vehicle is obsolete, as is the use of the Latin language. Certain convenient Latin abbreviations do survive for lack of convenient English substitutes (chiefly in hospitals where instructions are given to nurses and not to patients). They are listed below, without approval or disapproval. 

Most research papers today use a parenthetical documentation style, as illustrated in the MLA and APA sections of this chapter. However, in the event you face a writing situation that calls for use of traditional footnotes and bibliography page, here is a brief description of that format. This section will also help you understand the citation system of older documents you may be reading, especially those using Latin abbreviations. 

You may notice the use of Latin abbreviations in the notes of some documents, such as ibid, ( in the same place ) and op. cit. ( in the work cited ). In such documents, ibid, follows a footnote as a substitute for the author s name, title, and publication information there will be a new page number only if the reference differs from the one in the previous footnote. Writers use op. cit. with the author s name to substitute for the title in later references. 

Latin abbreviations are often used in procedures. Since Latin is a foreign language, these terms should be shown in italics (as should all foreign language words and abbreviations). 

Three Latinate abbreviations that are commonly used in procedures are etc., i.e., and e.g. 

Names and spelHngs of elements may vary with language, but symbols are universal. Tungsten, for example, is wolfram in Europe, but W is the universal symbol. Originally, elements could have either one or two letters in their symbols. The practice today, however, is to always use two letters. A symbol is either a single capital letter, or else two letters—a capital letter followed by a lower case letter. Inspection of the periodic table will show unnamed elements 113-118 with symbols like Unt, Unq, etc. These symbols are only temporary and represent Latin abbreviations for the numbers 113,114,115, and so forth, and will be replaced when these elements eventually are given permanent names. 

Water, as the simplest alcohol, should also be able to act as a nucleophile towards aldehydes and ketones and produce a gem-d o, sometimes termed a hydrate. The prefix gem is an abbreviation for geininal (Latin gemini twins) we use it to indicate two like groups on the same carbon. However, for most aldehydes and ketones, the equilibrium is unfavourable, and the reaction is not important. 

An abbreviation (for the Latin etaiia) that means and others. 

Note the use of et al. in the preceding examples. The abbreviation et al. (from the Latin et alia) means and others and is used to refer to works that have three or more authors. In the author—date system, the abbreviation et al. follows the last name of the hrst author every time the work is cited. In most ACS journals, et ah , if it is used, is used without capital letters, quotation marks, or italics. In some non-ACS journals, et al. is italicized ( et al ), but the rules regarding capital letters and quotation marks are the same. Because et al. means and others, the verb following et al. must agree with the plural subject (e.g., Snow et al. show... ). Consider the following incorrect and correct examples (based on ACS guidelines) ... 

The abbreviation et al. (from the Latin et alia) means and others. It is used to refer to a work that has multiple authors. Instead of referring to a work by writing out all of the authors names, writers use et al. after the surname of the first... 

Although directions for use are no longer written in Latin, many Latin apothecary abbreviations (and some others included below) are still in use. Knowledge of these abbreviations is essential for the dispensing pharmacist and often useful for the prescriber. Some of the abbreviations still used are listed in Table 65-1. 

Dclisle (op. cit., p. 357) also says that none of the hundred authors cited by Bartholomaeus is later than the commencement of the thirteenth century. In this book on herbs and plants in the 1506 Latin text the abbreviation Alia frequently used, and the name Alfredus is frequently used also, but the name Albertus docs not appear. This would seem to bear out the above statement of Rose and to explain the possibility of a misinterpretation of certain references to Alfredus as by Albertus, and this admitted, the reasons for placing Bartholomaeus ns later than Albertus disappear. 

The SI unit of quantity is called the mole (symbol n and abbreviation mol). It is derived from the Latin moles (meaning a mass ). One mole of a substance contains Avogadro s number of elementary units of the substance. Because atoms and molecules are extremely small entities, Avogadro s number (Na) is incomprehensibly large, 6.022 X 1023 particles/mol. Thus, one mole of hydrogen atoms contains 6.02 2 X 1023 H atoms, one mole of sucrose molecules consists of 6.02 2 X 1023 sucrose molecules, and so forth. 

Compounds that rotate the plane toward the left (counterclockwise) are called levorotatory, from the Latin word laevus, meaning toward the left. These terms are sometimes abbreviated by a lowercase d or Z. Using IUPAC notation, the direction of rotation is specified by the (+) or (—) sign of the rotation ... 

There are approximately 100 elements and each has been given an abbreviation or symbol. A list of the common ones appears in Appendix 1 along with their atomic masses. Some of the symbols are easily recognized from their British name, like carbon, C, or hydrogen, H, but some are named after their Latin names, e.g. sodium (natrium), Na, and iron (ferrum), Fe. 

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