cancer

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See also: Cancer, cáncer, cancèr, Cáncer, càncer, câncer, and Câncer

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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

Hypernyms[edit]

Hyponyms[edit]

Coordinate terms[edit]

  • benign tumor
  • benign neoplasm
  • benign neoplasia

Derived terms[edit]

types of cancer; hyponymic

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • → Hindi: कैंसर (kainsar)
  • → Swahili: kansa
  • → Urdu: کینسر‎ (kainsar)

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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[edit]

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Chinese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English cancer.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

cancer

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) cancer (disease)
    生cancer [Cantonese]  ―  saang1 ken1 saa2 [Jyutping]  ―  to have cancer

Synonyms[edit]

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin cancer.

Noun[edit]

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

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

Declension[edit]

Declension of cancer
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)

  1. cancer

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

Further reading[edit]

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.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

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

Case Singular Plural
Nominative cancer cancrī
Genitive cancrī cancrōrum
Dative cancrō cancrīs
Accusative cancrum cancrōs
Ablative cancrō cancrīs
Vocative cancer cancrī
  • In classical Latin, generally declined as a masculine noun of the second declension with the stem cancro-, but Lucretius uses a genitive singular form canceris (De Rerum Natura 5.617) and Cato the Elder uses a plural form canceres (De Agri Cultura 157.3.4), which are third-declension forms built on a stem cancer-. 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]

Learned borrowings:

References[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[3]
  1. ^ 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

Old English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin cancer.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈkɑn.ker/, [ˈkɑŋ.ker]

Noun[edit]

cancer m

  1. cancer
  2. crab

Declension[edit]

Declension of cancer (strong a-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative cancer cancras
accusative cancer cancras
genitive cancres cancra
dative cancre cancrum

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

References[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French cancer, from Latin cancer.

Noun[edit]

cancer n (plural cancere)

  1. cancer

Declension[edit]

Declension of cancer
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) cancer cancerul (niște) cancere cancerele
genitive/dative (unui) cancer cancerului (unor) cancere cancerelor
vocative cancerule cancerelor

Related terms[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

cancer c

  1. (medicine, oncology, pathology) cancer

Declension[edit]

Declension of cancer 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative cancer cancern cancrar cancrarna
Genitive cancers cancerns cancrars cancrarnas

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

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