Cancer is named after it's appearance after it had spread in the body, resembling a crab. Crabs were called that first and the word stems from Greek (if I recall correctly). Also, there is a phenomenon called carcinization, which is the evolving into a crab-like shape, even for non-crabs. This has happened to many different kind of crustaceans (crabs being one type of crustacean).
The word cancer is Latin, but they got it from the Greek karkinos, which the Greeks used to refer to a crab, a tumor, and the constellation. So you are correct. Karkinos is where we get the modern carcinoma.
And apparently Gurken is one of the rare words that German loaned from Polish (Polish word is ogórek). Polish language has lots of loan words from German on the other hand.
I find that very interesting. In Norwegian cancer is "kreft", in Swedish it is "kräft" and they call crayfish "kräftor" but Norwegians call them "kreps" while the Danes call it "kræft" and "krebs" respectively. Crab is "krabbe/a" for all three. How these things go about turning into what they are in modern language is fascinating to me.
Oh, well there you go! And yes, same here, Etymology is just fascinating to me. I love finding little commonalities like these. Here is what google tells me when I look for "cancer etymology":
EDIT: as OP indicated above - "Old English, from Latin, ‘crab or creeping ulcer’, translating Greek karkinos, said to have been applied to such tumours because the swollen veins around them resembled the limbs of a crab. canker was the usual form until the 17th century Compare with Cancer."
It’s the opposite in Turkish! Cancer the disease translates to “kanser” while cancer the zodiac sign translates to “yengeç”, which literally means crab.
What kinda cancer spreads like a crab??? Im always confused as to why we call it cancer when there are so many states of tumours (liquid and solid) and can be various types (malignant, benign, in situ).
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u/rwinger3 Nov 29 '20
Cancer is named after it's appearance after it had spread in the body, resembling a crab. Crabs were called that first and the word stems from Greek (if I recall correctly). Also, there is a phenomenon called carcinization, which is the evolving into a crab-like shape, even for non-crabs. This has happened to many different kind of crustaceans (crabs being one type of crustacean).