lymphoma

Etymology

It is formed from English lymph + -oma,^[2][3][4][5] after carcinoma and similar words;^[2] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com call it New Latin.^[4][6] The first element is from French lymphe, from Latin lympha (“water, clear water”),^[3] a spelling altered by association with Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē, “nymph”);^[2][3] the OED explains it as from an older form that also gave limpidus, the source of limpid.^[2] The suffix comes from Greek, where it formed nouns of result, and was taken in medicine for a morbid growth after sarcoma and carcinoma.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tumour with the structure of a lymphatic gland: 1873, in Green's Introduction to Pathology and Morbid Anatomy.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to 1867,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1870–75.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a tumour of lymphoid structure, whatever its nature,^[2] but it came to mean, in general use, a malignant disease of lymphoid tissue,^[5][7][4] or any cancer of the lymph nodes.^[8] The plural is lymphomas or, after the Greek, lymphomata.^[4][8][3] The derivative lymphomatosis, a diffuse disorder arising in lymphoid tissue, is from the early 20th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 1873 – a tumour with the structure of a lymphatic gland.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to 1867.^[3]
• early 20th century – lymphomatosis, a diffuse disorder of lymphoid tissue.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tumour, usually malignant, of lymphoid tissue; any of several cancers that arise in the lymph nodes, spleen or other lymphoid tissue: She was treated for lymphoma last year.^[4][8][5][7]

Word family

• lymphomatoid
• lymphomatous
• lymphomatosis

Related words

• lymph
• lymphatic
• carcinoma
• sarcoma
• nymph

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins