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#168129 - 05/08/07 05:22 PM
Re: Cancer
[Re: tsuwm]
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2
quizzersapru
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2007
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 09:58 PM
Re: Cancer
[Re: quizzersapru]
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 17
Jose Gros
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Aug 2007
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
Last edited by Jose Gros; 08/28/07 01:03 PM.
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#182079 - 01/27/09 02:59 PM
Re: Cancer
[Re: zmjezhd]
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
The Pook
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
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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