INTRODUCTION: In the whole medical philosofer’s academy, the student is faced with
numerous comparative, informal and poetic terms, and the use of metaphors is very recurrent
in medical education throughout the curriculum. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to do
a formal record of these medical terms. METHODOLOGY: The terms were collected through
direct consultation of the medical literature, covering four major medical areas, in addition to
two other specialties. RESULTS: In the universe of 865 terms, Internal Medicine corresponded
to 35.8% of this total. Clinical Pathology contributed with 26.2%, followed by Pediatrics
(22.0%), General Surgery (17.4%), Radiology (10.5%), and Gynecology and Obstetrics, in turn,
(7.0%). 667 terms (77.5%) referred only to images while 168 (19.5%) terms referred to the
meaning. In addition, only 92 (10.6%) of the terms appear in the international database
consulted, while 773 (89.4%) do not exist. CONCLUSION: Medicine, once creating informal
terms for its learning and teaching, is also a human science. In these informal and poetic terms,
it was seen that the image allusions were the majority. However, there is a need to be a greater
appreciation of these expressions at a scientific level, with updates to the DeCS database so
more of these terms and expressions can be included. Moreover, it is important that further
studies in this rich in possibilities and still underexplored area are made.
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