chancre

A chancre on the tongue caused by primary syphilis

A chancre of African trypanosomiasis on the neck

Borrowed from French chancre (“cancer”), from Latin cancer (“crab”). Cognate to canker and cancer.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃæŋ.kɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋkə(ɹ)

chancre (plural chancres)

1. (pathology) Skin lesion, sometimes associated with certain contagious diseases such as syphilis.
   • 1942, Albert Camus, 'The Stranger' (a.k.a 'The Outsider'), Joseph Laredo translation, Ch.1:

     The nurse stood up and went towards the door. At that point the caretaker said to me, "It's a chancre she's got." I didn't understand, so I looked at the nurse and saw that she had a bandage round her head just below the eyes. Where her nose should have been, the bandage was flat. Her face seemed to be nothing but a white bandage.

• canker

• chancer

Inherited from Middle French chancre, from Old French chancre, inherited from Latin cancrum, from Proto-Italic *kankros, dissimilation of *karkros (“enclosure”) (because the pincers of a crab form a circle), from Proto-Indo-European *kr-kr- (“circular”), reduplication of *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Doublet of cancer.

• IPA^(key): /ʃɑ̃kʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

chancre m (plural chancres)

1. (obsolete) lobster, crab
2. (medicine) canker, chancre

• cancer
• cancre

• → English: chancre

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

From Old French chancre, from Latin cancer, cancrum.

chancre m (plural chancres)

1. cancer (cancerous cell mutation)

• French: chancre
  • → English: chancre
• Norman: chancre

From Old French chancre, from Latin cancer.

chancre m (plural chancres)

1. (Jersey, pathology) tumour, verruca; syphilis
2. (Jersey) Guernsey crab

• (Guernsey crab): houais

• chancreux (“cancerous”)