cancer

Definitions

cancer is the Latin word for 'crab,' a direct translation of Greek karkinos. Ancient physicians saw the swollen veins around a hard tumor as a crab's outstretched legs gripping the flesh. The image stuck, and the crab-word became the disease-word. It is the everyday twin of the Greek-derived combining form carcin-.

Why It Means This

Why does a word for 'crab' mean cancer? Hippocrates described certain tumors as karkinos because the network of swollen blood vessels radiating from them looked like a crab's legs clutching the body. Roman doctors translated karkinos with their own crab-word, cancer, and it entered English as the standard term. The figurative sense — a creeping evil — comes from the disease's defining behavior: it spreads silently and resists removal.

Common Collocations

• 1.cancer treatment癌症治疗
• 2.cancer screening癌症筛查
• 3.cancer patient癌症患者
• 4.lung cancer肺癌
• 5.fight cancer抗击癌症

Example Sentences

• 1.

  She was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring.

• 2.

  Early screening can catch many cancers before they spread.

• 3.

  He survived cancer and now coaches a youth team.

• 4.

  Critics called corruption a cancer eating away at the party.

Synonym Comparison