cancer

English

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cancer

Wikipedia

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cancer (“crab”), a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”) (possibly cognate), applied to cancerous tumors because the enlarged veins resembled the legs of a crab. Doublet of canker and chancre.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkænsə/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkæːnsə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkænsɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænsə(ɹ)

Noun

cancer (countable and uncountable, plural cancers)

1. (medicine, oncology, pathology) A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (and often rapid) proliferation.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎:

     If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the […] hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.

   • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:

     Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

   • 2015 February 26, Francis S. Collins, Harold Varmus, “A New Initiative on Precision Medicine”, in The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 372, number 9, →DOI, pages 793–794:

     Cancers are common diseases; in the aggregate, they are among the leading causes of death nationally and worldwide, and their incidence is increasing as the population ages.

2. (figuratively) Something damaging that spreads throughout something else.
   • 1999, Bruce Clifford Ross-Larson, Effective Writing‎, page 134:

     Sierra Leone's post-dictator problems are almost absurd in their breadth. It once exported rice; now it can't feed itself. The life span of the average citizen is 39, the shortest in Africa. Unemployment stands at 87 percent and tuberculosis is spreading out of control. Corruption, brazen and ubiquitous, is a cancer on the economy.

Synonyms

• (disease): malignancy
• (something which spreads): growth, lichen

Hypernyms

• (disease): growth
• (disease): tumor
• (disease): neoplasia
• (disease): neoplasm

Hyponyms

• carcinoma
  • adenocarcinoma
• leukaemia / leukemia
• lymphoma
• sarcoma
  • lymphosarcoma
• See also: Derived terms denoting types

Coordinate terms

• benign tumor
• benign neoplasm
• benign neoplasia

Derived terms

• cancerwort (Kickxia spp.)
• cancer bush (Lessertia frutescens)
• cancer stick
• cancer root

Related terms

Descendants

• → Hindi: कैंसर (kainsar)
• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਕੈਂਸਰ (kainsar)

  Shahmukhi script: کینسر (kainsar)

• → Swahili: kansa
• → Urdu: کینسر (kainsar)
• → Welsh: canser

Translations

Adjective

cancer (comparative more cancer, superlative most cancer)

1. (slang) Extremely unpleasant and annoying.

   Synonyms: (slang) cancerous, (slang) AIDS

   I used to love this game, but the new meta is straight up cancer.

See also

• benignancy (benignity)
• leukemia
• lymphoma
• malignancy
• melanoma

References

• “cancer”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “cancer”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• crance

Basque

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin cancer (“crab”).

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: can‧cer

Noun

cancer inan or anim

1. (astrology) Cancer

   Synonym: karramarro

2. Cancer (someone with a Cancer star sign)

Declension

Further reading

• "cancer" in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia , euskaltzaindia.eus

Chinese

Etymology

From English cancer.

Pronunciation

Noun

cancer

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) cancer (disease)

   生cancer [Cantonese]  ―  saang¹ ken¹ saa²   ―  to have cancer

Synonyms

• can, 癌 (ái), 癌症 (áizhèng)

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cancer.

Noun

cancer c (singular definite canceren, not used in plural form)

1. cancer (disease)
2. (slang) Something perceived as bad.

Declension

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cancer. Doublet of chancre, which was inherited, and cancre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɑ̃.sɛʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

cancer m (plural cancers)

1. cancer

Derived terms

• cancer vert

Related terms

• cancre
• chancre

Descendants

• → Romanian: cancer
• → Turkish: kanser

Further reading

• “cancer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kankros, dissimilation of Proto-Italic *karkros (“enclosure”) (because the pincers of a crab form a circle), from Proto-Indo-European *kr-kr- (“circular”), reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”) in the sense of "enclosure", and as such a doublet of carcer. Cognate with curvus. The medical sense, found in Celsus, seems likely to be a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”), which is possibly cognate.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkan.ker/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkan.t͡ʃer/,

Noun

cancer m (genitive cancrī); second declension

1. a crab
   1. (Astronomy) the constellation Cancer
2. a tumor, cancer

   Synonym: carcinōma

3. a lattice, grid, or barrier

Declension

Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).

• In classical Latin, usually declined as a masculine second-declension noun with the stem cancro-.
• Third-declension forms built on a stem cancer- also existed, but were much less frequent. Attested forms include:
  • genitive singular canceris (Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 5.617)
  • accusative plural cancerēs (Cato the Elder, De Agri Cultura 157.3.4)
• The grammarians Charisius and Priscian describe a use as a neuter noun, with Priscian specifying that this applies when the word is used for the illness; the neuter occurs sporadically in later Christian authors.

Derived terms

• cancellus

Descendants

References

Further reading

• “cancer”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cancer”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cancer”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎
• “cancer” in volume 3, column 228, line 24 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “cancer”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 2: C Q K, page 174

Old English

Alternative forms

• cancor

Etymology

From Latin cancer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.ker/,

Noun

cancer m

1. cancer
2. crab

Declension

Derived terms

• cancerādl
• cancerhæbern
• cancerwund

Descendants

• Middle English: canker, cancre, cancer, cankre, cankyr, kankir, kanker (partially from Old French cancre)
  • English: canker
  • → Welsh: cancr

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “cancer”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French cancer, from Latin cancer.

Noun

cancer n (plural cancere)

1. cancer

Declension

Related terms

• canceros

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

cancer c

1. (medicine, oncology, pathology) cancer

Declension

Synonyms

• kräfta (obsolete)

Derived terms

References

• cancer in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)