cancer
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]- (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
[edit]cancer (countable and uncountable, plural cancers)
- (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[1]:
- 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, , 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.
- (figuratively) Something damaging that spreads throughout something else.
- 1991, Charlie Peacock (lyrics and music), “In the Light”[2]:
- The disease of the self runs through my blood; It's a cancer fatal to my soul.
- 1999, Bruce Clifford Ross-Larson, Effective Writing[3], 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
[edit]- (disease): malignancy
- (something which spreads): growth, lichen
Hypernyms
[edit]Hyponyms
[edit]Coordinate terms
[edit]- benign tumor
- benign neoplasm
- benign neoplasia
Derived terms
[edit]- abdominal cancer
- anal cancer
- anti-cancer
- bile duct cancer
- biliary tract cancer
- black cancer
- bladder cancer
- blood cancer
- bone cancer
- boob cancer
- bowel cancer
- brain cancer
- breast cancer
- cervical cancer
- cheek cancer
- chimney sweep's cancer
- colon cancer
- colonic cancer
- colorectal cancer
- concrete cancer
- duodenal cancer
- ear cancer
- esophageal cancer
- eye cancer
- gallbladder cancer
- gastric cancer
- gay cancer
- give someone ass cancer
- give someone butt cancer
- green cancer
- gum cancer
- head and neck cancer
- head-neck cancer
- heart cancer
- hypopharyngeal cancer
- I have cancer
- intestinal cancer
- jaw cancer
- kidney cancer
- laryngeal cancer
- larynx cancer
- lip cancer
- liver cancer
- lung cancer
- lymphatic cancer
- lymph gland cancer
- lymph node cancer
- mouth cancer
- mule spinner's cancer
- mule spinners' cancer
- multi-cancer
- nasal cancer
- neck and head cancer
- neck cancer
- nose cancer
- ocular cancer
- oesophageal cancer
- oral cancer
- oropharyngeal cancer
- ovarian cancer
- pancreatic cancer
- penile cancer
- pharyngeal cancer
- pharynx cancer
- prostate cancer
- rectal cancer
- renal cancer
- scrotal cancer
- skin cancer
- small intestine cancer
- stomach cancer
- swamp cancer
- testicular cancer
- throat cancer
- thyroid cancer
- tongue cancer
- tonsil cancer
- tree cancer
- triple-negative breast cancer
- triple negative breast cancer
- turbo cancer
- uterine cancer
- vaginal cancer
- walking skin cancer
- womb cancer
Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Translations
[edit]
|
Adjective
[edit]cancer (comparative more cancer, superlative most cancer)
- (slang) Extremely unpleasant and annoying.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- “cancer”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “cancer”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
[edit]Basque
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Ultimately from Latin cancer (“crab”).
Pronunciation
[edit]
- Hyphenation: can‧cer
Noun
[edit]cancer inan or anim
- (astrology) Cancer
- Synonym: karramarro
- Cancer (someone with a Cancer star sign)
Declension
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “cancer”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy], Euskaltzaindia
Chinese
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]cancer
Synonyms
[edit]Danish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]cancer c (singular definite canceren, not used in plural form)
Declension
[edit]common gender |
Singular | |
---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | |
nominative | cancer | canceren |
genitive | cancers | cancerens |
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin cancer. Doublet of chancre, which was inherited, and cancre.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]cancer m (plural cancers)
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “cancer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈkan.ker/, [ˈkäŋkɛr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkan.t͡ʃer/, [ˈkän̠ʲt͡ʃer]
Noun
[edit]cancer m (genitive cancrī); second declension
- a crab
- (Astronomy) the constellation Cancer
- a tumor, cancer
- Synonym: carcinōma
- a lattice, grid, or barrier
Declension
[edit]Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | cancer | cancrī |
genitive | cancrī | cancrōrum |
dative | cancrō | cancrīs |
accusative | cancrum | cancrōs |
ablative | cancrō | cancrīs |
vocative | cancer | cancrī |
- 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:
- 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.[1]
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- Asturian: cáncanu, cancru, cangru (“crab louse”)
- → Old English: cancer
- Old French: chancre
- Friulian: cancar (from a dialectal variant *cáncaro),
granç (via Late Latin cancrus) - Galician: cáncaro, cángaro, cancro, cangrio
- → Middle Irish: cainncer
- Italian: granchio (via metathesis of Late Latin cancrulus > *cranclus)
- Old Occitan:
- Portuguese: carango (“crab louse”)
- Sicilian: garanciu
- → Maltese: granċ
- Old Spanish: cangro
- ⇒ Spanish: cangrejo
- → Asturian: cangrexu
- → Galician: cangrexo, caranguexo
- → Portuguese: caranguejo
- ⇒ Spanish: cangrejo
- Venetan: cancaro (from a dialectal variant *cáncaro), granso (via Late Latin cancrus)
- → Proto-Brythonic: *krank
Learned borrowings:
References
[edit]- ^ Jerry Russell Craddock, "The Romance descendants of Latin cancer and vespa" in Romance Philology, Vol. 60 (2006), Homage Issue: Special Combined issue of Romance Philology In Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Romance Philology : A homage volume dedicated to Jerry R. Craddock, containing a selection of his obra dispersa on Romance historical linguistics, pp. 1–42. page 5 http://www.jstor.org/stable/44741756
Further reading
[edit]- “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[4]
- “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, volume 2: C Q K, page 174
Old English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]cancer m
Declension
[edit]Strong a-stem:
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | cancer | cancras |
accusative | cancer | cancras |
genitive | cancres | cancra |
dative | cancre | cancrum |
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- Middle English: canker, cancre, cancer, cankre, cankyr, kankir, kanker (partially from Old French cancre)
References
[edit]- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “cancer”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary[5], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French cancer, from Latin cancer.
Noun
[edit]cancer n (plural cancere)
Declension
[edit]singular | plural | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | ||
nominative-accusative | cancer | cancerul | cancere | cancerele | |
genitive-dative | cancer | cancerului | cancere | cancerelor | |
vocative | cancerule | cancerelor |
Related terms
[edit]Swedish
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio: (file)
Noun
[edit]cancer c
Declension
[edit]Synonyms
[edit]- kräfta (obsolete)
Derived terms
[edit]- blodcancer
- bröstcancer
- cancerframkallande
- cancerläkare
- cancersvulst
- hudcancer
- koloncancer
- levercancer
- livmodercancer
- livmoderhalscancer
- lungcancer
- lymfcancer
- magcancer
- prostatacancer
- skelettcancer
- sköldkörtelcancer
- strupcancer
- tarmcancer
- testikelcancer
- tjocktarmscancer
- underlivscancer
- uteruscancer
- äggstockscancer
- ändtarmscancer
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)ker- (turn)
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ænsə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ænsə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Medicine
- en:Oncology
- en:Diseases
- English terms with quotations
- English adjectives
- English slang
- English terms with usage examples
- Basque terms derived from Latin
- Basque terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Basque/ans̻er
- Rhymes:Basque/ans̻er/2 syllables
- Rhymes:Basque/ans̺er
- Rhymes:Basque/ans̺er/2 syllables
- Basque lemmas
- Basque nouns
- Basque terms spelled with C
- Basque inanimate nouns
- Basque animate nouns
- Basque nouns with multiple animacies
- eu:Astrology
- Cantonese terms borrowed from English
- Cantonese terms derived from English
- Chinese lemmas
- Cantonese lemmas
- Chinese nouns
- Cantonese nouns
- Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Chinese terms written in foreign scripts
- Cantonese Chinese
- Cantonese terms with collocations
- Danish terms borrowed from Latin
- Danish terms derived from Latin
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish terms spelled with C
- Danish common-gender nouns
- Danish slang
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French doublets
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Diseases
- fr:Medicine
- fr:Oncology
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)ker- (turn)
- Latin terms inherited from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Latin doublets
- Latin terms calqued from Ancient Greek
- Latin terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Latin 2-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin second declension nouns
- Latin masculine nouns in the second declension
- Latin masculine nouns
- la:Arthropods
- la:Diseases
- la:Oncology
- la:Crustaceans
- Old English terms derived from Latin
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English masculine nouns
- Old English masculine a-stem nouns
- ang:Diseases
- Romanian terms borrowed from French
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian terms derived from Latin
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian neuter nouns
- ro:Diseases
- Swedish terms with audio pronunciation
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns
- sv:Medicine
- sv:Oncology
- sv:Diseases