cancer

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkaŋ.kɛr]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkan̠ʲ.t͡ʃer]^[1]

Forms

cancer m (genitive cancrī); second declension^[1] It is sometimes neuter, and Lucretius has the genitive canceris.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *karkro- (“enclosure”), with the first /r/ changed to /n/ by dissimilation, so that it is related to carcer “prison”; the crab would be named for its pincers, which form a ring.^[4][1] De Vaan tentatively traces it to Proto-Indo-European *kr̥-kr-o- (“circular”).^[4]

Compare Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab”), which Schrijver derives from a similar form.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[4][5] whose character “goes sideways, not forwards, as a crab does”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant a crab, as in Virgil's warning not to roast red crabs on the fire.^[2] It was the constellation Cancer, which the sun enters at midsummer and which stood for summer heat and the south.^[2][6]

It was also the name of several diseases, including malignant tumours and gangrene, which Cato already treats with cabbage.^[2][4] Medieval Latin used it for an arch or vault and for pincers.^[7] It survives as Italian granchio and Spanish cangrejo, “crab”.^[1] Old English took cancer for a spreading sore, the source also of canker, and chancre came from French about 1600.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a crab.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for ulcers.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the constellation.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for crabs.^[2][5]
• c. 1600 – English chancre comes from French.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crab.^[2][3]
2. The constellation Cancer; summer heat; the south.^[2][6]
3. (medicine) A cancer, malignant tumour; an ulcer.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) An arch, vault; pincers.^[7]

Word family

• cancellus
• canceraticus

Related words

• carcer
• cancellī
• English cancer
• English canker
• English chancre

Usage notes

A rare cancer “lattice, barrier”, apparently from carcer, is the source of the diminutive cancelli.^[2][3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com