Etymology

cancerous

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Today it means: Relating to or affected with cancer. Full definition →

Middle English cancerous ← Latin cancerōsus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcancerōsus
  2. Middle English · inherited fromcancerous
  3. English todaycancerous

From Middle English cancerous, from Latin cancerōsus, from cancer (“crab; tumor, cancer”) + -ōsus (adjective-forming suffix). By surface analysis, cancer + -ous.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.