Origin of the word cancer The origin of the word cancer is credited to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 BC), who is considered the “Father of Medicine.” Hippocrates used the terms carcinos and carcinoma to describe non-ulcer forming and ulcer-forming tumors. In Greek, these words refer to a crab, most likely applied to the disease because the finger-like spreading projections from a cancer called to mind the shape of a crab. The Roman physician, Celsus (28-50 BC), later translated the Greek term intocancer, the Latin word for crab. Galen (130-200 AD), another Roman physician, used the word oncos (Greek for swelling) to describe tumors. Although the crab analogy of Hippocrates and Celsus is still used to describe malignant tumors, Galen’s term is now used as a part of the name for cancer specialists — oncologists.
Sent from my iPad On 27/07/2012, at 1:25 PM, dershem <[email protected]> wrote: > On 7/26/2012 6:18 PM, LAR wrote: >> Seems to me, that as dialogue - you may be correct. Not sure when such >> terms were introduced. As a narrative however it would be geared to the >> reading audience, not the setting. >> >> Larry >> >> On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 9:09 PM, Nat Russo <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> I was writing earlier today and realized I may have been guilty of >> anachronism. If you are writing about a pre-industrial society, >> would it be anachronism to use "...ate away at him like a cancer" as >> a metaphor? >> A pre-industrial society knows nothing of "cancer", right? Well, >> *my* pre-industrial society doesn't, I should say. >> >> Just one of those curious tidbits that's likely to...well....eat >> away at me like a cancer. /wink /nudge #seewhatIdidthere >> >> Nat > > Depends on the society. Remember that in 1776 they knew at least one form of > Cancer, and called it that - "the Cancer". > > cd > -- > http://projectselene.com > > > > > ======= > Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found. > (Email Guard: 7.0.0.18, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.18500) > http://www.pctools.com/ > ======= >
