If this is a YART I apologize, but I would like to ask if the original application of the word "cancer" (Latin for crab) to malignant growths is related to the pain that cancers can cause (perhaps like a crab inside that is causing pain with its pincers), or to the physical appearance of tumors with their spiculated, crab-like projections into the surrounding tissue? Does the OED have any comment on this?
i read (eons ago it seems) that there are several different types of tumors. the three most common:
cysts are almost like internal blisters (filled with liquid) they can come and go, and are generally harmless, (but more prone to infections--which can cause secondary problems.)
tumors, generally self contained hard nodules. they grow, and grow, but they are seperate. (sometimes they have a membrane or 'shell' but even when they don't, they are more like a foriegn body inside your body.)
Cancers are crab like--they have long thin arms that extend their reach, they 'burrow' into tissue, (instead of being a lump that is piggybacking on the tissue)
this is why cancer surgeons have 'cut extensively' to remove them.
When they discover a small cancer 'nodule' in the lung, they remove a whole lobe, or half the lung--because the nature of cancer is to have long thin crab like arms that extend far beyond the body(nodule) and if you don't remove all of it, the 'arm' will continue to grow.
(crabs can grow new appendages if one is broken off)
but i am sure the doctors on board will chime in with some technical terms!
but i am sure the doctors on board will chime in with some technical terms!
I am more specifically interested in why the Latin word for "crab" was applied to the phenomenon of malignancy. "Tumor" is Latin for a mass or lump, and is descriptive of a physical exam finding. But using the word "cancer" reflects a somewhat poetic choice, and I just wondered what the origin of it was.
Cancer had three meanings in Latin: 1. crab; 2. sign of the Zodiac; 3. cancer. The third entry in Lewis and Short is "In medicine,
a crawling, eating, suppurating ulcer, malignant tumor, a cancer". The citations are from Aulus Cornelius Celsus [fl. 20-30 CE] (
De medicina), Publius Ovidus Naso [43 BCE - 17 CE] (
Metamorphoses), and Marcus Portius Cato [aka Cato the Elder; 234 - 149 BCE] (
De re reustica). Celsus has the most citations, especially in the fifth book:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Celsus/5*.htmlThe Latin term cancer 'crab' for cancer predates the English language.
So the Romans themselves associated the disease with a crab. Very interesting. Thank you zmjezhd.
I thought I remembered seeing the term used in one of the Socratic dialogs. A quick google turned up this, though not Socratic...
The doctors Hippocrates and Galen began to revolutionize medical thought by thinking about disease as a natural physical process, rather than one caused by magic and the supernatural. They had a profound influence on the treatment and understanding of disease for almost 1500 years. Hippocrates gave the name karkinos and karkinoma (the ancient Greek words for "crab") to a group of diseases that he studied, including cancers of the breast, uterus, stomach, and skin. The hard center and spiny projections of the tumors Hippocrates observed reminded him of the crustacean. "Cancer" means "crab" or “crayfish” in Latin. Indeed, cancer became a recognized diagnosis in this time period. Although Galen removed some tumors surgically, he generally believed that cancer was best left untreated.http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/pharm/chemo/readings/timeline.htm
insel, by jove, I think you've done it! Bravo!
Wow, of course! karkinos and karkinoma --> "carcinoma." Thanks!
Yes, so I suppose that Latin cancer is a loan translation from Greek karkinos. (I say suppose because both words are cognates and could go back to PIE times.) I have yet to look into the Sanskrit word for crab which is also related to see if it can mean both crab and cancer. The greek word is a neuter and the plural is karkina, but the Latin word is sometimes a neuter and others a masc/fem.
>>could go back to PIE times
Indeed they do, although at Dic.com (see what a well-referenced fellow I am!) you have to look up the related word "canker" to find this out:
[Middle English, from Old English cancer, and from Old French cancre both from Latin cancer, crab, malignant disease. See kar- in Indo-European Roots.]http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=canker
and Etymonline.com gave this:
cancer
O.E., from L. "a crab," later, "malignant tumor." Greek physician Galen, among others, noted similarity of crabs to some tumors with swollen veins. From Gk. karkinos, which, like the Mod.E. word, has three meanings: crab, tumor, and the zodiac constellation (1391), from PIE base *qarq- "to be hard" (like the shell of a crab); cf. Skt. karkatah "crab," karkarah "hard;" and probably cognate with PIE base *qar-tu- "hard, strong," source of Eng. hard. Meaning "person born under the zodiac sign of Cancer" is from 1894. Cancer stick "cigarette" is from 1959.
Indeed they do, although at Dic.com
Sorry, I should have been clearer. Yes, the words are cogantes (i.e., related). What I was getting at was whether the meaning of cancer went back to PIE times. I think not. Sanskrit only has the meaning of crab for karkaTa. And I am satsified that Roman doctors adapted the term from the Greeks.
>>I should have been clearer
Kind of you. Thanks.