Etymology of the Word Cancer

The origin of the word cancer is credited to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 BC). This particular old dude is often called the “Father of Medicine” - although not much about his actual life is known, and much of what we think we know about him comes from people writing about him much later.

Hippocrates is however regularly credited with being one of the first people to suggest that diseases are natural, and not caused by superstition or religion.

Hippocrates used the terms karkinos and karkinoma to describe tumours.

In Greek, these words refer to a crab, most likely applied to the disease because the finger-like spread of a cancerous tumour resembles a crab with its many legs.

The Roman physician, Celsus (28-50 BC), later translated the Greek term into the word ‘cancer’, which was the Latin word for crab.

This stuck, and now when we think of the big C, we also think of our crabby little friends.