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) 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]

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

types of cancer

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  • cancer at OneLook Dictionary Search
  • cancer in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams[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

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". Cognate with Latin carcer and curvus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

cancer m (genitive cancrī); second declension

  1. a crab
  2. a tumor, cancer
  3. a lattice, grid, or barrier

Inflection[edit]

Second declension, nominative singular in -er.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative cancer cancrī
Genitive cancrī cancrōrum
Dative cancrō cancrīs
Accusative cancrum cancrōs
Ablative cancrō cancrīs
Vocative cancer1 cancrī

1May also be cancre.

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

From the diminutive cancriculus:

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]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin cancer, French 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) cancer

Usage notes[edit]

  • Until circa 1970, the word kräfta was also used.

Declension[edit]

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

Related terms[edit]

References[edit]

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