On 3/2/08 9:36 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The tumor was one good natured (benigh) (I have looked up
the words and I am not sure which is correct.)
"Benign" is the word we use to say a tumor isn't cancer. It
doesn't fit very well -- benign tumors don't do you a bit of
good -- but I suppose the doctors wanted something to
counteract the sheer panic the word "tumor" tends to cause.
Or perhaps it was just a natural reaction to using
"malignant" to say that a tumor *is* cancer. That does fit
well, because cancer behaves as though it were out to get you.
Or, perhaps, both terms were a translations of German words
that fit better.
(cheating and looking it up in Merriam-Webster, second
edition: "malignant" originally meant "tending to cause
death", hence a "malignant tumor" was one that tended to
spread or to come back after extirpation; "benign tumor" was
defined as "innocent tumor", which in turn was defined as
one which did not in itself threaten death and which did not
tend to spread or to grow back after extirpation.)
--
Joy Beeson
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
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west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.
where there are puddles on the lake.
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