Where does “anticancer” come from?
Anticancer combines the English prefix anti- with cancer, which derives from Latin cancer meaning crab, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European (s)ker- meaning to cut or scratch.
anticancer (English): That is used to treat cancer
Definitions
- That is used to treat cancer
Ancestry of “anticancer”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | Cancer | Someone with a Cancer star sign |
| 2 | Latin | cancer | a crab; a tumor, cancer; a lattice, grid, or... |
| 3 | Proto-Italic | kankros | crab |
| 4 | Proto-Italic | karkros | enclosure, barrier |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | kr̥-kr̥- | circular |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)ker- | to cut off; to turn, bend |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | sek- | to cut, cut off, sever |