sarcoma

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin sarcoma,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek σάρκωμα (sárkōma, “a fleshy growth, fleshy substance”), in Galen,^[2][7] from σαρκόω (sarkóō, “to make fleshy, grow fleshy”), from σάρξ (sárx, “flesh”),^{[2][3][4][7][5]} also the source of sarcasm.^[7][5] Stedman's analyses it directly as the Greek for flesh plus -oma.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fleshy excrescence: 1657, in the Physical Dictionary.^[2][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a fleshy lump.^[2] Johnson (1755) took it from Bailey as a fleshy growth, especially in the nostrils,^[9] and the OED's last record of this sense is from 1752.^[2] The modern sense, a tumour of connective tissue, dates from 1804, in Abernethy's Surgical Observations,^[2][4][7][5] and has since widened to almost any malignant tumour not derived from epithelial tissue.^[2] Separately, botanists used the word for the fleshy disc around an ovary, a term of Link's quoted in Lindley in 1832.^[2]

Timeline

• 1657 – a fleshy excrescence (obsolete by 1752).^[2][4]
• 1804 – a tumour of connective tissue.^[2][4][5]
• 1832 – in botany, the fleshy disc around an ovary.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A malignant tumour arising in connective tissue, such as bone, cartilage or muscle: The biopsy confirmed a sarcoma of the thigh.^{[5][10][6][8]}
2. (botany) The fleshy disc around an ovary.^[2]
3. (obsolete, 1657–1752) A fleshy excrescence.^[2][6][9]

Word family

• sarcomatoid
• sarcomatous
• lymphosarcoma
• osteosarcoma
• rhabdomyosarcoma
• fibrosarcoma
• angiosarcoma
• carcinosarcoma

Related words

• sarcasm
• sarcophagus
• sarco-
• -oma
• carcinoma

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins