# cancer



## Ilmo

In most languages that I know the feared disease cancer is known with names that refer to the latin origin of the word. Also the Swedish word "kräfta" as well as the German word Krebs mean at the same time crab or crayfish.

Of course, all these diseases can be called tumors, but it is another thing, not a name of a disease. The same concerns leucaemia, that also has cancerous character.

*In Finnish* all the cancerous diseases can be called with a common name "syöpä", with a prefix indicating the cancer type ("keuhkosyöpä" = lung cancer, "eturauhassyöpä" = prostate cancer, etc.)

The Finnish word "syöpä" is derivated from the verb "syövyttää" = to corrode, thus the ailment could be called "a corrosive disease", because it in some way corrodes away the tissues of the human body.

*My question:* Are there any other languages that have developed their own word for this disease, and in that case, what is the derivation base of the term?


----------



## Lemminkäinen

Ilmo said:


> Also the Swedish word "kräfta" as well as the German word Krebs mean at the same time crab or crayfish.



I though they said 'cancer' in Sweden. Anyway, the Norwegian word is 'kreft', and comes, as so much of our vocabulary, from German.


----------



## Ilmo

But that was just what I said - cancer isn't Swedish nor Norwegian but latin, and I doubt whether the Swedes even know that "kräfta" can be anything else than some delicious thing to be eaten in August.
I asked whether any other people has in use for this disease terms that are not more or less directly derived from latin or the name of crabs/crayfishes.


----------



## Lemminkäinen

Sorry! I totally misread you   I thought you said that they called cancer 'kräfta' in Swedish.
I guess it was too early in the morning to post


----------



## Ilmo

And it's true, too. "Kräfta" as the name of the disease may be a bit old-fashioned nowadays but at least my dictionaries mention it, and I even have known it before. But you see, when I learned my Swedish, for instance the verb "to be" was conjugated "vi äro", and I may still say that "det var en gång en liten fisk som sam i en å, och därefter vi alla summo tillsammans".
Cheers


----------



## Etcetera

The Russian for cancer is рак, and it's a literal translation of the Latin word. Рак is also the Russian for crab.


----------



## jazyk

Cancer in Portuguese is câncer (cancro seems to be preferred in Portugal), both the disease and the sign of the zodiac. Crab is caranguejo.


----------



## Jana337

Czech:
animal - rak
zodiac - Rak
disease - rakovina

Jana


----------



## papillon

Etcetera said:


> The Russian for cancer is рак, and it's a literal translation of the Latin word. Рак is also the Russian for crab.


 Just a small correction. As far as I know, cancer in Latin means crab. However, the Russian рак is not crab, but _crayfish_ or _crawdad_, a small lobster-looking dweller of river bottoms. Since crabs weren't than common, perhaps the next closest thing was chosen as a disease name.

As always, the obligatory Russian joke. A guy goes to a doctor, who is ...completely incompetent.

-Доктор, ну что вы узнали? - Doctor, what's the diagnosis?
-Вы знаете, у вас рак.        - Well, it's cancer.
-Но доктор, в прошлый раз вы сказали что у меня камни в почках. -But last time you said that it was kidney stones.
А, ну да...камни. А под камнями - рак. - Erm... sure...stones, rocks. And under the rock - crayfish.


----------



## Thomas1

In Polish:
rak


papillon said:


> Just a small correction. As far as I know, cancer in Latin means crab. However, the Russian рак is not crab, but _crayfish_ or _crawdad_, a small lobster-looking dweller of river bottoms. Since crabs weren't than common, perhaps the next closest thing was chosen as a disease name.
> 
> [...]


The same applies to Polish except for the fact that Polish crayfish also live in lakes. 


Tom


----------



## Ilmo

But the main question that I'm asking remains without answer: *For what reason the name of the disease is based on the animal, whether it is a crab or an crayfish?

*The name of the disease in Finnish characterizes the fact that the ailment *eats away *or *corrodes *the human body. It may be a good thing that in so many languages the same word is used for the same thing, but it doesn't describe the ailment in any way.


----------



## Lemminkäinen

Ilmo said:


> *For what reason the name of the disease is based on the animal, whether it is a crab or an crayfish?
> 
> *



My dictionary says that the disease was called cancer in Latin because a tumour sometimes could resemble a crayfish.


----------



## illerdi

Ilmo said:


> *My question:* Are there any other languages that have developed their own word for this disease, and in that case, what is the derivation base of the term?


In Basque we say "minbizia".

min = pain
bizia = it can mean "alive" or "life"


----------



## Etcetera

Lemminkäinen said:


> My dictionary says that the disease was called cancer in Latin because a tumour sometimes could resemble a crayfish.


More precisely: because a breast tumour (and breat cancer is the older known form of cancer) indeed resembes a crayfish.


----------



## Maja

Really? I had no idea... and I always wondered why!

In Serbian (same as  Russian and Czech):
animal - rak
zodiac - rak
disease - rak.

So  no specific "Serbian" word for it, I am afraid. Doctors, however, usually say  "kancer" (cancer) or "maligni/zloćudni tumor" (malignant tumor).


----------



## elroy

The Arabic word for "cancer" in all contexts is سرطان (_saraTaan_).  I'm afraid I don't know what the etymology is.


----------



## Honour

In turkish we say kanser (cancer)
Yet there are two other words; *tümör* (french: tu meurs) and *ur *are also possible names for the ill tissue. Though, only kanser refers to the disease itself.


----------



## papillon

Turk said:


> Yet there are two other words; *tümör* (french: tu meurs)



I'm pretty sure tumor doesn't come from French. At least the English etymology is:
Etymology:	Middle English _tumour,_ from Latin _tumor,_ from _tumEre
(according to Merriam-Webster).
_


----------



## Ilmo

Turk said:


> In turkish we say kanser (cancer)
> Yet there are two other words; *tümör* (french: tu meurs) and *ur *are also possible names for the ill tissue. Though, only kanser refers to the disease itself.



But, dear Turk, *tumor* and *cancer* are no synonyms.
I'd say that any *growth* abnormal or  *outgrowth* is a* neoplasm *or a "benign" *tumor. *Only a few of the tumors that there may be in the human body are *malignant*. In my humble opinion, the dreadful word *cancer* can be used only of these illnesses.

Thus, once again, if you bother to read anew the contributions to this thread, there seems to be only one other language than the Finnish, where the cancer indeed has a name of its own origin.

illerdi wrote:
In Basque we say "minbizia".
 min = pain
bizia = it can mean "alive" or "life"

Please tell me whether it is really used in everyday speech, can you combine it with the different kinds of cancer diseases, for instance can you say (in Basque, of course) "lung minbizia", "prostate minbizia", "breast imbizia" and so on?


----------



## Honour

Hi all,

To Papillon:

Hımm, you are probably right, i don't know anything about its English etymology however Turkish etymology according to www.tdk.gov.tr (turkish language institute) indicates that we have taken it from French  


To Ilmo:
 You are definitely right . The name of the highly fatal disease is *kanser. *The others only refer to the ill tissue as i stated before.


----------



## Nino pirosmani

The Georgian for cancer is კიბო ( pronounced- kibo), and it's a literal translation of the Latin word. კიბო (kibo) is also the Georgian for crab.


----------



## illerdi

Ilmo said:


> Please tell me whether it is really used in everyday speech, can you combine it with the different kinds of cancer diseases, for instance can you say (in Basque, of course) "lung minbizia", "prostate minbizia", "breast imbizia" and so on?



Yes, Ilmo, it is used in everyday speech and we combine it for each kind of cancer:

biriketako minbizia = lung cancer
prostatako minbizia = prostate cancer
bularreko minbizia = breast cancer
...


----------



## Bienvenidos

Persian/Farsi:

saratán


----------



## Matthewflanders

In Dutch it's "kanker", and it's not the name of an animal. The word for crab is "krab" and the word for crawfish, lobster or the zodiac sign is "kreeft".


----------



## Billopoulos

"Καρκίνος" in Greek!


----------



## Jayjay

Danish: kræft. Sorry I don't have the Danish etymological dicitonary on me.
Tangent: Danes curse themselves with cancer when they get mad - random fact: 25% of the country has it!


----------



## gao_yixing

Chinese: 癌症（ai zheng)


----------



## samanthalee

gao_yixing said:


> Chinese: 癌症（ai zheng)


 
The animal is 蟹 (crab)
The zodiac is 巨蟹 (huge crab)
The disease is 癌 (word found in ancient medical books. Also meant rocks, but refers to cancer exclusively in modern use)

...guess the Chinese found out about cancer before it occurred to them that it looks like a crab...or perhap, they found out about cancer before they found the crabs....


----------



## Sicario

It's from the greek word Καρκίνος (karkinos) wich means crab


----------



## Encolpius

in Hungarian no special word. 

*rák*
1/ animal
2/ disease


----------



## kusurija

Jana337 said:


> Czech:
> animal - rak
> zodiac - Rak
> disease - rakovina


tumor - nádor
disease - nádorové onemocnění (but more often: rakovina)

In Lithuanian also shows to crayfish:
animal - vėžys
zodiac - Vėžys
disease - vėžys

In Japanese:
disease - 癌[...gan](came from Chinese)
P.S. Are You sure, that You didn't interchange it with character 嵒(rock)?


----------



## Pivra

elroy said:


> The Arabic word for "cancer" in all contexts is سرطان (_saraTaan_). I'm afraid I don't know what the etymology is.


Doesn't saraTaan bahri mean sea crab??  

In my language (Thai) cancer is Mareng มะเร็ง


----------



## sokol

Matthewflanders said:


> In Dutch it's "kanker", and it's not the name of an animal. The word for crab is "krab" and the word for crawfish, lobster or the zodiac sign is "kreeft".


This word "kanker" certainly should be a Latin loan, don't you think?
(That is, "cancer" pronounced like it was pronounced in classical times - supposedly - with /c/ being /k/ in any positions while in vulgar Latin this /c/ became /s/ before /e/ and /i/.)


----------



## Fray Luis

elroy said:


> The Arabic word for "cancer" in all contexts is سرطان (_saraTaan_). I'm afraid I don't know what the etymology is.


 
In Arabic it means both the crustacean, the disease and the Zodiac sign. In Spanish we have the word zaratán, from Arabic. It's pretty much in disuse, but in some rural areas of southern Spain it's still used for breast cancer.


----------



## wbhindyou

In Vietnamese the phrase is "ung thu": 

ung -> "to rot" 
thu -> "slowly"

No mention of animals here.....


----------



## jana.bo99

We have the same in 

Slovenian and Croatian:

Animal: Rak
Zodiac: Rak (why that?)
Disease: Rak

jana.bo


----------



## Nawaq

Since *French* hasn't been done...

The disease is _cancer_, the zodiacal sign is also _Cancer_ (just with a capital C), crayfish (this word has an interesting etymology) is _écrevisse_ and crab is _crabe_.


----------



## kloie

Italian cancro.


----------



## Gavril

Icelandic: _krabbamein _"cancer" < _krabbi _"crab" + _mein _"damage, disease", modeled after other words for the disease that contain the Latin word for "crab" (_cancer_) or a translation thereof

Armenian: քաղցկեղ (pronounced _khaghts-kegh_) "cancer" < քաղց "hunger" + կեղ "scab, ulcer"


----------



## Dymn

Nothing special

Catalan:

Crab - _cranc_
Crayfish - _cranc de riu _("river crab")
Cancer (zodiac) - _càncer, cranc_
Cancer (disease) - _càncer
_
Spanish:

Crab - _cangrejo_
Crayfish - _cangrejo de río _("river crab")
Cancer (zodiac) - _cáncer_
Cancer (disease) - _cáncer_


----------



## apmoy70

Greek:

Crab: *«Κάβουρας»* [ˈkavuɾas] (masc.) & *«καβούρι»* [kaˈvuɾi] (neut.) < Byz.Gr. *«κάβουρος» kábouros* (masc.) & neut. diminutive *«καβούριν» kaboúrin* with metathesis < Classical masc. noun *«κάραβος» kā́rabŏs* --> _crustacean, kind of beetle_ (with obscure etymology; Beekes accepts it as a Pre-Greek word).
Crayfish: *«Καραβίδα»* [kaɾaˈviða] (fem.) < Classical 3rd declension fem. noun *«καραβίς» kărabís* (nom. sing.), *«καραβίδος» kărăbídŏs* (gen. sing.) --> _kind of sea-crab, crayfish_; it's the feminine form of *«κάραβος»* (see above).
Cancer (zodiac): *«Καρκίνος»* [karˈcinos] (masc.) < Classical masc. noun *«καρκίνος» kărkínŏs* --> _crab_; it's the pre-Byzantine name of the crustacean (with obscure etymology; its resemblance to the Skt. कर्कट (karkaṭa), Lat. cancer, is noteworthy but not all morphological details are clear).
Cancer (disease): *«Καρκίνος»* [karˈcinos] (masc.).


----------



## ilocas2

Jana337 said:


> Czech:
> animal - rak
> zodiac - Rak
> disease - rakovina, also *rak* colloquially


----------



## amikama

elroy said:


> The Arabic word for "cancer" in all contexts is سرطان (_saraTaan_).  I'm afraid I don't know what the etymology is.


Similar to Hebrew סרטן (_sartan_). I too don't know what is its etymology.


----------



## 123xyz

Macedonian:

*рак - *cancer (disease and Zodiac sign), crayfish, crab ("crab" is also "краба")
*тумор - *tumor

We use the preposition "на" to indicate where the cancer is, e.g. "рак на дојка", meaning "breast cancer", lit. "cancer on breast".


----------



## bibax

In Czech we use also karcinom (carcinoma) from Greek καρκίνος (not from Latin cancer). However it is not a general term (but carcinom is the commonest type of the disease - cca 80%).


----------



## fdb

elroy said:


> The Arabic word for "cancer" in all contexts is سرطان (_saraTaan_).  I'm afraid I don't know what the etymology is.


 
It also means "crab" and the constellation "Cancer".


----------



## elroy

fdb said:


> It also means "crab" and the constellation "Cancer".


 Yes, the latter was included under "all contexts."  There are different words for "crab" depending on the region, but yes, سرطان is one of them.


----------



## DaylightDelight

kusurija said:


> In Japanese:
> disease - 癌[...gan](came from Chinese)
> P.S. Are You sure, that You didn't interchange it with character 嵒(rock)?


It seems that this character 癌 is created specifically to represent the disease by combining 疒 (disease) and 嵒 (rock).
So the suggested meaning is something like "rock disease", here "rock" being stiffness/lumpiness of the tumor.


----------

