#167603 - 04/16/07 08:01 PM
Cancer
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stranger
Registered: 04/16/07
Posts: 1
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My daughter asked this evening why the disease cancer was named after a crab. I figured I'd check here first!
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#168129 - 05/08/07 01:22 PM
Re: Cancer
[Re: tsuwm]
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stranger
Registered: 01/17/07
Posts: 2
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Well, I am not only interested in etymology, but am also a practising radiation oncologist. There are loads of medical books explaining the etymology of "cancer". "Cancer" or the Greek "Canker" means "crab". Although one is not certain who coined this term, most books agree on Galen (which is sort of ironic, as he was a Roman physician and chose a Greek root; but then doctors have always loved esoteria... :-) ) Anyway, the term comes from the descriptive pathology of a usual malignant tumour (malignant is important, because you cannot/should not term benign lesions as cancer; and more importantly, or relevantly, the ancient ones recognised the entity of malignant & benign, and chose to name only the malignant one as "cancer"!) which spreads its claws in all directions, much like a crab, and has a tenacious tendency to hold on to the parent tissue even when resected, again like the creature.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.
_________________________
Cogito ergo sum!
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#169718 - 08/27/07 05:58 PM
Re: Cancer
[Re: quizzersapru]
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stranger
Registered: 08/25/07
Posts: 17
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Hi! The info I have is in the same line. The word crab seems to have been used by classical greeks because some breast tumours, namely a type called "scirrous" gave -it is not the case today unless left without therapy- the breast the appearance of having been attacked by crab´s claws. I am a medical oncologist, and yes I have interest in ethymologies, as the origin of words give clues to the history of them, and old meanings, and meanings in different cultures give light to unsuspected connections, e.g. God,Gott, gauthi, gotha, ghost, gheist, Deus, Eloi, Allah, El-Al, Jainkoa, Dyaus, Zeus, Jupiter, Yahveh Adonay (Jhvh Dny) Juhuvah Adonayanam (jhvh dnynm), King, Koenig, Ganaka. Wikipedia contains a lot of resources on this
Edited by Jose Gros (08/28/07 09:03 AM)
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#182018 - 01/25/09 01:05 AM
Re: Cancer
[Re: Jose Gros]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 06/23/08
Posts: 8436
Loc: Land of the Flat Water
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I seem to remember the reverend who gave the invocation at
Obama's inauguration invoking Isai, Yeshua, Jesus, etc.
toward the end of the prayer. In a way, however, by doing
so he ignored many by remaining totally in his own faith.
Not bad necessarily, just interesting.
_________________________
----please, draw me a sheep----
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#182021 - 01/25/09 10:55 AM
Re: Cancer
[Re: LukeJavan8]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/13/05
Posts: 3290
Loc: R'lyeh
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The Latin for crab (and cancer) is cancer, whence English cancer and canker; the Greek for crab is karkinos, whence English carcinoma. Galen wrote in Greek and used karkinos 'crab' for the disease cancer; Aulus Cornelius Celsus used the Latin word cancer in his De medicina. Greek has both ogkos, i.e., onkos, whence English oncology) and kele) for 'tumor' .
_________________________
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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#182023 - 01/25/09 12:27 PM
Re: Cancer
[Re: zmjezhd]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 06/23/08
Posts: 8436
Loc: Land of the Flat Water
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Wherever the term comes from it is catastrophic, and I hope
our two posters above who work in the field help find a
cure and soon.
_________________________
----please, draw me a sheep----
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#182079 - 01/27/09 09:59 AM
Re: Cancer
[Re: zmjezhd]
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old hand
Registered: 02/20/08
Posts: 1067
Loc: Tasmania
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(which is sort of ironic, as he was a Roman physician and chose a Greek root The Latin for crab (and cancer) is cancer, whence English cancer and canker; the Greek for crab is karkinos, whence English carcinoma. Galen wrote in Greek and used karkinos 'crab' for the disease cancer; Aulus Cornelius Celsus used the Latin word cancer in his De medicina. Greek has both ogkos, i.e., onkos, whence English oncology) and kele) for 'tumor' . Very thorough as usual James! The only thing I can think to add is that the reason he would have written in Greek even though he was from a Roman family line himself, is that Greek was the linga franca of most of the Roman Empire at that time. Latin was the language of the Army and Civil Administration, but Greek was the language of the marketplace, science, religion and philosophy. It was only after the Empire split into East and West that Latin became more important in the Western half and eventually dominated European science and religion. Greek continued to be dominant in the Byzantine Empire. Galen also lived in Pergamum, at the more Greek end of the Empire. Of course if he live there now he would speak Turkish.
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#182083 - 01/27/09 12:10 PM
Re: Cancer
[Re: The Pook]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 06/23/08
Posts: 8436
Loc: Land of the Flat Water
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And I believe the everyday spoken Greek was/is called Koine
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