Wann ist ein terminus technicus ein terminus technicus? – Das Beispiel àτρεμής im Corpus Hippocraticum

Abstract

In this paper, I present some results of my research done in the project eXChange. My main goal was to investigate to what extent and how the terminology of the Corpus Hippocraticum has been influenced by the language of the preceding (esp. lyric) literature. A common view in the linguistics concerned with languages for special purposes (the German ‘Fachsprachen’) holds that termini technici are often created by implementing a word from the common language into a technical context and narrowing its former meaning down to a specialized and strictly defined one. While this mechanism could be traced for several terms in the Corpus Hippocraticum, some terms could be found which denote special processes or methods and have been taken over into the medical context without a significant change of meaning. The question is raised if these terms can be regarded as termini technici even if their meaning has not been coined in a specialized context.