melanoma

Etymology

It is formed from English melano- + -oma,^[2][3][4][5] and Merriam-Webster and Etymonline call it a New Latin or medical Latin formation.^[6][7] The first element is from Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas, “black”), genitive μέλανος (mélanos),^[7][8][9] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *melh- (“black, of darkish colour”), the source also of Lithuanian mėlynas (“blue”).^[7][2] The suffix -oma goes back to -ωμα (-ōma), formed from the lengthened stem vowel of certain verbs and the noun suffix -μα (-ma);^[5][2] from words such as sarcoma and carcinoma it came to mean "morbid growth, tumour" in medicine.^[7][2] The OED compares Byzantine Greek μελάνωμα (melánōma, “blackness”).^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A darkly pigmented growth, a tumour containing melanin: 1826, in R. Hooper's Morbid Anatomy of the Human Brain.^[2][7][10] Merriam-Webster's first date is 1838, and Dictionary.com dates it to 1825–35.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The word first named any dark, pigmented growth or tumour containing melanin; in later use it came to mean specifically a tumour of melanocytes, in full malignant melanoma, the dangerous form of skin cancer.^[2][3][6] Collins notes that it often follows too much exposure to sunlight,^[11] and Stedman's that it arises mostly in the skin but also in the eye and, rarely, in mucous membranes.^[12] The plural is melanomas or, less often, the Greek-style melanomata.^[11][6][13]

Timeline

• 1826 – a darkly pigmented growth or tumour containing melanin.^[2][7] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1838.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tumour of melanin-forming cells (melanocytes), usually malignant, arising most often in the skin; malignant melanoma.^{[13][11][9][12]}
2. Any darkly pigmented growth or tumour of the skin.^[6][2]

Related words

• melanin
• melanocyte
• melancholy
• carcinoma
• sarcoma

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt