cancrum
Meaning
- neutercanker
quando epidemice haec labes saevit ob quas causas Anglicum vulgus eam Mouth Canker, aut Canker of the Mouth, id est Cancrum Oris appellat: quod nomen de aliis quoque ulcerosis ac malignis Oris affectibus usurpat.
1649, Arnold Boate, Observationes medicae de affectibus omissis (page 26)
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | cancrum | cancra |
| genitive | cancrī | cancrōrum |
| dative | cancrō | cancrīs |
| accusative | cancrum | cancra |
| ablative | cancrō | cancrīs |
| vocative | cancrum | cancra |
Origins
From cancer (“crab; cancer”). The use of cancrum as a neuter nominative/accusative form may derive from a misunderstanding of the gender of the masculine accusative singular form cancrum. The term "cancrum oris" first appears in print in Observationes medicae de affectibus omissis (1649) by Arnoldus Boot as a translation of English "mouth canker" in a grammatical context that calls for an accusative singular, and so the form is ambiguous in this source as to the gender of the word. The hypothesis that the name cancrum oris originated in such a blunder is put forth by B. H. Coates (1826), who suggests the error first appeared in John Pearson's Principles of Surgery (1788, London, Chapter 13, Section 1 "Of the Canker of the Mouth", from page 262).