5 ms·
> These words all descend from the Greek "karkinos", meaning "crab", which became "cancer" in Latin. > "Cancer" later took on an alternative meaning, "enclosur
by SamBam 5y ago
> These words all descend from the Greek "karkinos", meaning "crab", which became "cancer" in Latin.
> "Cancer" later took on an alternative meaning, "enclosure", because of the way a crab's pincers form a circle.
I am not an expert, but I think this may be backwards. I think the original meaning was circle, from which both the "enclose" meaning and the "crab" meaning (because the pincers form a circle or an enclosure) derive.
wiktionary [1] has the most in-depth etymology I can find, and has for "cancer" (meaning crab) the etymology is: karkros (“enclosure”) (because the pincers of a crab form a circle), from Proto-Indo-European kr-kr- (“circular”), reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”) in the sense of "enclosure", and as such a doublet of carcer. Cognate with curvus.
Anyway, that aside, I felt stupid not having realized the etymology of "cancel," since in Italian (one of my languages) "cancello" means "gate."
1. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cancer#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cancer#Latin
- DanielDe 5y agoAh yes, I think you're right, I got that backwards! I'll update the post, thank you!
- canjobear 5y agoRelatedly, "cycle", "wheel", "circle", and "chakra" are all from the same Indo-European root via different languages.
- jeofken 5y agoHow does “wheel” relate? In Sweden/DK/NO we call it “hjul” which is pronounced like the American nicotine vape brand juul, quite similar to English
- flobosg 5y agoAll those words derive from the same Proto-Indo-European root, *kwel- : https://www.etymonline.com/word/*kwel- https://www.etymonline.com/word/*kwel-
- canjobear 5y agoApparently also "pole", via a change kw > p in Greek!
- canjobear 5y agoGrimm's Law was a sound change that turned k into h when Proto-Germanic split off from Proto-Indo-European. The original form was something like *kwel which turned into *hwel in Proto-Germanic, then eventually wheel in English and hjul in Scandinavian languages. The other words (chakra, circle, cycle) are from some kind of reduplicated form like *kwekwlos, via different routes.
- dotancohen 5y agoThis is easily seen today in e.g. Norwegian Kval and English Whale, which still sound similar enough to appear related even to the layman.
- jeofken 5y agoThanks! It reminds me of how western Norwegians (Bergen, Stavanger etc) say a hard K sound when I think a H sound would be “normal”. Maybe they just never changed?
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> In Sweden/DK/NO we call it “hjul” which is pronounced like the American nicotine vape brand juul, quite similar to English I can't quite tell, but if you're saying that the American brand Juul is pronounced in English as if it were the word "you'll", that is not correct. Americans don't think of the letter J that way. (If you're saying Nordic hjul and English wheel are similar, they are cognates.)
- jeofken 5y agoCan’t fix the comment now but meant that SV: hjul is pronounced like the vape brand
- programmer_dude 5y agoWow, kark is crab in sanskrit.
- danans 5y agoThat should be the least surprising. Sanskrit (especially the Vedic stage) preserves a tremendous number of old Indo European forms and is often used as a sort of validity check for PIE etymologies.
- armandososa 5y agoIn Spanish we also use "cancel" as gate or fence.