cancer

Multiple Entries:
  cancer    Cancer  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
cancer/ˈkansə(r)/

▶noun

• 1 a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body.

  ■ a malignant growth or tumour resulting from such a division of cells.

• 2 something evil or destructive that is hard to contain or eradicate: the cancer of racism.

– derivatives
cancerous adjective.

– origin OE, from L., ‘crab or creeping ulcer’, translating Gk karkinos, said to have been applied to tumours because the swollen veins around them resembled the limbs of a crab.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Cancer/ˈkansə(r)/

▶noun

• 1 Astronomy a constellation (the Crab), said to represent a crab crushed under the foot of Hercules.

• 2 Astrology the fourth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters at the northern summer solstice (about 21 June).

– derivatives
Cancerian /-ˈsɪərɪən, -ˈsɛːrɪən/ noun & adjective.

– origin from L.