cancer

Forms

cancer n (plural cancere)^[1] Tiktin records an obsolete form cancru.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cancer and directly borrowed from Latin cancer (“crab; cancer”), a medical term of the early 19th century.^[3][4][5][1] Tiktin, DA and Gabinschi give Latin alone, DLRM French.^[2][6][7][8]

In Latin the medical sense follows Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; tumour”), which was used for a tumour because some growths look like a crab's claws.^[3][1] French borrowed the Latin word in 1372, first as the sign of the zodiac; the sense “malignant tumour” followed in 1478.^[9] De Vaan explains the Latin noun as a dissimilation of earlier Proto-Italic *karkros (“enclosure”), comparing carcer: a crab's pincers form a circle.^[10] DELR takes the Latin and Greek words as related within Indo-European.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1829, and DELR has it from 1832 as a malignant tumour.^[2][3] The adjective canceros follows in 1852.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu in 1870 gave both the zodiac sign and the medical sense, the latter as a “gangrenous sore”.^[11] Șăineanu adds a figurative “great evil”, which DEX now gives as “scourge”.^[12][4] The plant disease caused by fungi and bacteria is a later, specialist sense.^[4][13]

Popular Romanian uses rac “crayfish” for the disease, and Tropicul Cancerului and zodia Cancerului stand beside Tropicul Racului and zodia Racului.^[4][5] Its family grew with medical terms taken from French: cancerigen and cancerologie (1969), cancerolog (1978).^[3]

Timeline

• 1829 – the first record.^[2]
• 1832 – “malignant tumour”.^[3]
• 1852 – canceros “cancerous”.^[3]
• 1870 – the zodiac sign and a gangrenous sore, in Costinescu.^[11]
• 1969 – cancerigen, canceriza and cancerologie.^[3]
• 1978 – cancerolog and cancerofobie.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. cancer: any of the malignant tumours that grow fast and invade neighbouring tissue; a synonym of neoplasm, popularly rac.^[4][5]
2. A disease of plants caused by parasitic fungi and bacteria.^[4][5]
3. In Tropicul Cancerului “the Tropic of Cancer” and zodia Cancerului “the sign of Cancer”.^[4]
4. (figurative) A scourge: Corupția e cancerul societății.^[4][5]

Word family

• canceriform
• cancerigen
• canceriza
• cancerofobie
• cancerogeneză
• cancerolog
• cancerologic
• cancerologie
• canceros

Related words

• rac
• Latin cancer

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cáncer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. cáncer
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 138
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 285
6. ^ Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. cáncer
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 72
8. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 111
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 149
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 97
13. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. cancer