cancer
Pronunciation: /ˈkænsə/
The English word “cancer” has 3 meanings listed here.
noun
- A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (often rapid) proliferation.
- Something damaging that spreads throughout something else.
adjective
- Extremely unpleasant and annoying.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cancer (“crab”), a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”), possibly cognate, applied to cancerous tumors because of a supposed resemblence between their enlarged veins and the legs of a crab. Doublet of canker and chancre.
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.