carcinoma

What it means

1. countablemedicineAn invasive malignant tumour derived from epithelial tissue that tends to metastasize to other areas of the body.
2. countableobsoletemedicineA form of cancer; (uncountable) cancer in general as a disease.

   Take the fatteſt and fulleſt Figs you can get, lay them upon the ugly and ill favored tumor called Carcinoma, i. the Canker, ſo it be not yet exulcerat, I aſſure you it is a ſoveraine remedie, and hardly can be matched againe: […]

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXIII.] Of Peares, and the Properties Observed in Them. Of Tame Figge Trees, and Their Figges. Of the Wild Figge Tree. Of Erineus, and Other Plants, with the Medicines which They Affourd..”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 167

In a sentence

Take the fatteſt and fulleſt Figs you can get, lay them upon the ugly and ill favored tumor called Carcinoma, i. the Canker, ſo it be not yet exulcerat, I aſſure you it is a ſoveraine remedie, and hardly can be matched againe: […]

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXIII.] Of Peares, and the Properties Observed in Them. Of Tame Figge Trees, and Their Figges. Of the Wild Figge Tree. Of Erineus, and Other Plants, with the Medicines which They Affourd..”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 167

Where it comes from

1. Ancient Greekκᾰρκῐνώμᾰτᾰ
2. Latincarcinōmata
3. Ancient Greekκᾰρκῐ́νωμᾰ“sore, ulcer; cancer”
4. Latincarcinōma“tumour; ulcer; carcinoma”
5. Englishcarcinoma

Learned borrowing from Latin carcinōma (“tumour; ulcer; carcinoma”), from Ancient Greek κᾰρκῐ́νωμᾰ (kărkĭ́nōmă, “sore, ulcer; cancer”), from καρκινόω (karkinóō, “to make (something) resemble a crab”, in the mediopassive "to become cancerous; to suffer from cancer") + -μᾰ (-mă, action noun suffix). Καρκινόω is derived from καρκῐ́νος (karkĭ́nos, “crab; the zodiac sign Cancer; sore, ulcer; cancer”) (according to Paul of Aegina (c. 625 – c. 690) in his Medical Compendium in Seven Books, because the veins surrounding a cancerous tumour resemble a crab’s legs). The English word is a doublet of cancer, and may be analysed as carcino- + -oma. The plural form carcinomata is a learned borrowing from Latin carcinōmata, from Ancient Greek κᾰρκῐνώμᾰτᾰ (kărkĭnṓmătă).