cancrum oris

English

Etymology

From Latin cancrum ōris, from cancrum (“canker”) and ōris (“of the mouth, face”), genitive singular of ōs (“mouth, face”). The Latin phrase itself is first attested in a source that gives it as a translation of an English common name "mouth canker" or "canker of the mouth".

Noun

cancrum oris (uncountable)

1. (pathology) noma, a gangrenous disease of the face

Latin

Etymology

From cancrum (“canker”) and ōris (“of the mouth, face”), genitive singular of ōs (“mouth, face”). First attested in 1649 (see below) in a source that gives it as a translation of an English common name "mouth canker" or "canker of the mouth", and in a context where it is accusative singular (and therefore cancrum could be the masculine accusative singular of cancer). Later authors' interpretation of it as a neuter singular form may be a grammatical blunder.

Noun

cancrum ōris n (genitive cancrī ōris); second declension

1. (medicine) cancrum oris
   • 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) with an indeclinable portion.

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