chancre

Borrowed from French chancre (“cancer”), from Latin cancer (“crab”). Cognate to canker and cancer.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃæŋ.kɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋkə(ɹ)

chancre (plural chancres)

1. (pathology) Skin lesion, sometimes associated with certain contagious diseases such as syphilis.

• soft chancre

• canker

• chancer

From Middle French chancre, from Old French chancre, inherited from Latin cancer, cancrum, from Proto-Italic *kankros, dissimilation of *karkros (“enclosure”) (because the pincers of a crab form a circle), from Proto-Indo-European *kr-kr- (“circular”), reduplication of *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Doublet of cancer.

• IPA^(key): /ʃɑ̃kʁ/

chancre m (plural chancres)

1. (obsolete) lobster, crab
2. (medicine) canker, chancre

• cancre, cancer

• → English: chancre

• “chancre” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Old French chancre, from Latin cancer, cancrum.

chancre m (plural chancres)

1. cancer (cancerous cell mutation)

• French: chancre
  • → English: chancre
• Norman: chancre

From Old French chancre, from Latin cancer.

chancre m (plural chancres)

1. (Jersey, pathology) tumour, verruca; syphilis
2. (Jersey) Guernsey crab

• (Guernsey crab): houais

• chancreux (“cancerous”)