chancre

Forms

chancre m (plural chancres)^[1] Old French cancre (second half of the 12th century), then chancre (first half of the 13th century);^[2][3] the Robert and the GLLF cite cranche from Aldebrandin of Siena, 1256.^[4][5] Anglo-Norman forms include cancer, cancre and chancre.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cancre, inherited from Latin cancer (“crab; ulcer, cancer”),^[2][7][8] recorded in the sense “ulcer” since Cato and in the form cancrus in the 6th century, in the Latin Oribasius.^[2] Rey derives it from that Late Latin form, an alteration of the classical noun.^[3] The Latin word had taken over all the senses of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos), of the same root.^[3] Wiktionary traces it through Proto-Italic *kankros, a dissimilated *karkros (“enclosure”), to Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).^[1]

The learned cancer and cancre come from the same Latin word.^[3][1] Cognate with Italian canchero;^[8][9] Littré also compares Occitan cranc.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

As cancre it is first recorded in the second half of the 12th century, in a Grégoire text cited by Tobler–Lommatzsch, meaning an ulcer or cancer.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a small ulcer that tended to eat away the surrounding flesh,^[3] and in 1566 Henri Estienne used it for a venereal ulcer,^[2] the sense medicine later narrowed to an ulcer of skin or mucous membrane at the start of certain infections, as in chancre mou and chancre syphilitique.^[3][2] Furetière (1690) records it in forestry for a disease that eats into the bark and wood of trees.^[2][3] The figurative sense of something that eats away at a person or a society appears early in the 18th century, in Saint-Simon.^[2][5] The phrase manger comme un chancre “to eat greedily” is recorded before 1755.^[3][10]

In Acadian French, in New Brunswick and Louisiana, the word keeps its old senses and can mean a crab or an ulcer.^[3] English borrowed chancre “venereal ulcer” about 1600.^[11]

Timeline

• 1150–1200 – Cancre “ulcer, cancer” in a Grégoire text.^[2][3]
• 1200–1250 – The form chancre appears.^[2][3]
• 1314 – The adjective chancreux appears in Henri de Mondeville's Chirurgie.^[2][3]
• 1546 – The derived verb échancrer is formed.^[3]
• 1566 – Henri Estienne uses it of a venereal ulcer.^[2]
• c. 1600 – English borrows chancre.^[11]
• 1690 – Furetière records the disease of trees.^[2][5]
• early 18th century – Saint-Simon uses it figuratively.^[2]
• 1878 – Chancrelle is coined for the soft chancre.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) A chancre, an erosion or ulcer of the skin or a mucous membrane at the first stage of some infections, especially venereal ones: chancre mou, chancre syphilitique.^[12][2]
2. (dated) A small ulcer that spreads by eating into the surrounding flesh.^[12][10]
3. (familiar) Manger or bouffer comme un chancre: to eat greedily.^[12][3]
4. (botany) A canker, a wound on the trunk or branches of a tree caused by a fungus or by infection.^[12][2]
5. (figurative) Something that gnaws at and destroys: le chancre de la corruption.^[12][5]
6. (Acadia, Louisiana) A crab.^[3]

Word family

• chancreux
• chancrelle
• échancrer

Related words

• cancer
• cancre

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 174b
8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert