cancrum

Latin

Etymology 1

Noun

cancrum

1. accusative singular of cancer

Etymology 2

From cancer (“crab; cancer”). The use of cancrum as a neuter nominative/accusative form may derive from a misunderstanding of the gender of the masculine accusative singular form cancrum. The term "cancrum oris" first appears in print in Observationes medicae de affectibus omissis (1649) by Arnoldus Boot as a translation of English "mouth canker" in a grammatical context that calls for an accusative singular, and so the form is ambiguous in this source as to the gender of the word. The hypothesis that the name cancrum oris originated in such a blunder is put forth by B. H. Coates (1826), who suggests the error first appeared in John Pearson's Principles of Surgery (1788, London, Chapter 13, Section 1 "Of the Canker of the Mouth", from page 262).

Noun

cancrum n (genitive cancrī); second declension

1. (medicine) canker
   • 1649, Arnold Boate, Observationes medicae de affectibus omissis , (page 26):

     quando epidemice haec labes saevit ob quas causas Anglicum vulgus eam Mouth Canker, aut Canker of the Mouth, id est Cancrum Oris appellat: quod nomen de aliis quoque ulcerosis ac malignis Oris affectibus usurpat.

Inflection

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	cancrum	cancra
genitive	cancrī	cancrōrum
dative	cancrō	cancrīs
accusative	cancrum	cancra
ablative	cancrō	cancrīs
vocative	cancrum	cancra

Derived terms

• cancrum ōris

References

• cancrum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)