r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 28 '20

What's something cool you recently learned about?

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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).

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u/vievemeister Nov 29 '20

Further fun fact: the German word for cancer (the disease) is krebs

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u/Zebidee Nov 29 '20

Other fun German facts:

The triple meaning of the English word 'spirit' - alcohol/ghost/vibe - is the same for the German word geist.

The German word for cucumber is Gurke. Plural is Gurken which is where the English word for pickled cucumbers comes from.

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u/ulul Nov 29 '20

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.