The story
- Latin · borrowed fromcancer“crab”
- English todaycancrine
From Latin cancer (“crab”) + -īnus, as if from *cancrīnus. The poetry sense comes from the fact that most species of crab can walk sideways, either left or right.
Words from the same roots
Latincancer all →
cankerchancrecancrivorous
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.