cancer
See also: Cancer, cáncer, cancèr, Cáncer, càncer, câncer, and Câncer
English
Etymology
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
- (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
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:
- 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.
-
- (figuratively) Something damaging that spreads throughout something else.
- 1999, Bruce Clifford Ross-Larson, Effective Writing, 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
- (disease): malignancy
- (something which spreads): growth
- (something which spreads): lichen
Hypernyms
- (disease): growth
- (disease): tumor
- (disease): neoplasia
- (disease): neoplasm
Hyponyms
- carcinoma
- adenocarcinoma
- leukaemia / leukemia
- lymphoma
- sarcoma
- lymphosarcoma
- See also: Derived terms denoting types
Coordinate terms
- benign tumor
- benign neoplasm
- benign neoplasia
Derived terms
types of cancer; hyponymic
- abdominal cancer
- anal cancer
- bile duct cancer
- biliary tract cancer
- black cancer
- bladder cancer
- blood cancer
- boob cancer
- bowel cancer
- brain cancer
- breast cancer
- cervical cancer
- cheek cancer
- chimney sweep's cancer
- colon cancer
- colonic cancer
- colorectal cancer
- duodenal cancer
- ear cancer
- esophageal cancer
- eye cancer
- gallbladder cancer
- gastric cancer
- gay 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
- 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
- triple negative breast cancer
- uterine cancer
- vaginal cancer
- walking skin cancer
- womb cancer
- cancerwort (Kickxia spp.)
- cancer bush (Lessertia frutescens)
- cancer stick
- cancer root
Related terms
- Cancer
- cancerization
- cancerize
- cancerous
- canker
- carcinogen
- chancre
- precancerous
Descendants
- → Hindi: कैंसर (kainsar)
- → Swahili: kansa
- → Urdu: کینسر (kainsar)
Translations
disease of uncontrolled cellular proliferation
|
Adjective
cancer (comparative more cancer, superlative most cancer)
- (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
- benignancy (benignity)
- leukemia
- lymphoma
- malignancy
- melanoma
References
- cancer at OneLook Dictionary Search
- cancer in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
Anagrams
- crance
Chinese
Etymology
From English cancer.
Pronunciation
Noun
cancer
- (Hong Kong Cantonese) cancer (disease)
- 生cancer [Cantonese] ― saang1 ken1 saa2 [Jyutping] ― to have cancer
Synonyms
- 癌 (ái), 癌症 (áizhèng)
Danish
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cancer.
Noun
cancer c (singular definite canceren, not used in plural form)
- cancer (disease)
- (slang) Something perceived as bad.
Declension
Declension of cancer
| common gender | Singular | |
|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | cancer | canceren |
| genitive | cancers | cancerens |
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cancer. Doublet of chancre, which was inherited, and cancre.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɑ̃.sɛʁ/
audio (file)
Noun
cancer m (plural cancers)
- cancer
Derived terms
- cancer vert
Related terms
- cancre
- chancre
Descendants
- → Romanian: cancer
- → Turkish: kanser
Further reading
- “cancer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Etymology
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
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈkan.ker/, [ˈkäŋkɛr]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkan.t͡ʃer/, [ˈkän̠ʲt͡ʃer]
Noun
cancer m (genitive cancrī); second declension
- a crab
- (Astronomy) the constellation Cancer
- a tumor, cancer
- Synonym: carcinōma
- a lattice, grid, or barrier
Declension
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
- cancellus
Descendants
- Asturian: cáncanu, cancru, cangru (“crab louse”), cangrexu
- → Old English: cancer
- Middle English: canker
- English: canker
- → Irish: cancar
- → Welsh: cancr
- Middle English: canker
- Old French: chancre
- Middle French: chancre
- French: chancre
- → English: chancre
- Norman: chancre
- French: chancre
- Walloon: crantche
- Middle French: chancre
- Friulian: cancar (from a dialectal variant *cáncaro),
granç (via Late Latin cancrus) - Galician: cáncaro, cángaro, cancro, cangrio; cangrexo
- → Middle Irish: cainncer
- Italian: granchio (via Late Latin cancrus)
- Old Occitan:
- Catalan: cranc, carranc
- Occitan: cranc
- Portuguese: carango (“crab louse”)
- Sicilian: càncaru, granciu, grancifudduni
- → Maltese: granċi
- Old Spanish: cangro
- ⇒ Spanish: cangrejo
- → Asturian: cangrexu
- → Galician: cangrexo, caranguexo
- → Portuguese: caranguejo
- ⇒ Spanish: cangrejo
- Venetian: cancaro (from a dialectal variant *cáncaro), granso (via Late Latin cancrus)
Learned borrowings:
- Asturian: cáncer
- Catalan: càncer
- English: cancer
- French: cancer
- → Romanian: cancer
- → Turkish: kanser
- Middle Dutch: canker
- Dutch: kanker
- Afrikaans: kanker
- → Caribbean Javanese: kangker
- → Malay: kanker
- → Indonesian: kanker
- → Minangkabau: kangker
- → Papiamentu: kanker
- Dutch: kanker
- Italian: cancro
- Norman: cancèr
- Occitan: càncer
- Portuguese: cancro, câncer
- Spanish: cáncer, cancro
- Walloon: cancer
References
- “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
- 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
Alternative forms
- cancor
Etymology
From Latin cancer.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkɑn.ker/, [ˈkɑŋ.ker]
Noun
cancer m
- cancer
- crab
Declension
Declension of cancer (strong a-stem)
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | cancer | cancras |
| accusative | cancer | cancras |
| genitive | cancres | cancra |
| dative | cancre | cancrum |
Derived terms
- cancerādl
- cancerhæbern
- cancerwund
Descendants
- Middle English: canker, cancre, cancer, cankre, cankyr, kankir, kanker (partially from Old French cancre)
- English: canker
References
- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898), “cancer”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French cancer, from Latin cancer.
Noun
cancer n (plural cancere)
- cancer
Declension
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
- canceros
Swedish
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Noun
cancer c
- (medicine, oncology, pathology) cancer
Declension
| Declension of cancer | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
| Nominative | cancer | cancern | cancrar | cancrarna |
| Genitive | cancers | cancerns | cancrars | cancrarnas |
Synonyms
- kräfta (obsolete)
Derived terms
- blodcancer
- bröstcancer
- cancerframkallande
- cancersvulst
- hudcancer
- koloncancer
- levercancer
- livmodercancer
- livmoderhalscancer
- lungcancer
- lymfcancer
- magcancer
- prostatacancer
- skelettcancer
- sköldkörtelcancer
- strupcancer
- tarmcancer
- testikelcancer
- tjocktarmscancer
- underlivscancer
- uteruscancer
- äggstockscancer
- ändtarmscancer
References
- cancer in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)