Forms: 1 cancer, -or, 3 cauncre, 3–4 cancre, 4 kankir, 4, 6 cankre, 5 cankyr, kankere, 6 cancar, cankar, kanker, 6–7 cancker, 4– canker. [a. ONF. cancre, in Central OF. and mod.F. chancre (whence also in Eng. shanker, CHANCRE, q.v.):—L. cancr-um (nom. cancer) crab, also gangrene. The word had been used in OE. directly from L.]
1. An eating, spreading sore or ulcer; a gangrene. † a. Formerly, often the same as CANCER. b. Now spec. A gangrenous affection of the mouth, characterized by small fetid sloughing ulcers; gangrenous stomatitis, stomacace. Also called canker of the mouth or water-canker. c. Farriery. A disease of the horse’s foot, characterized by a fetid discharge from the frog.
For the specific sense a. the Latin cancer was introduced about 1600; but canker was used alongside of it till c. 1700.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 110. Gemeng wið þam dustum, clæm on ðone cancer. Ibid., I. 370. Wið cancer-wund.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 98. Ase holi writ seið, ‘hore speche spret ase cauncre.’
1382. Wyclif, 2 Tim. ii. 17. The word of hem crepith as a kankir [1388 canker, Vulg. ut cancer].
1528. Paynell, Salerne’s Regim., X ij. A canker is a melancolye impostume, eatynge partes of the bodye.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Dk. Clarence, xi. 3. No cankar fretteth flesh so sore.
1563. T. Gale, Antidot., II. 79. Cankers in the mouthes of the children.
1595. Shaks., John, V. ii. 14. Heale the inueterate Canker of one wound, By making many.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physic, 248/2. When as a woman getteth an obduratede Breste, & feareth leaste it be the Cancker.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 282. The Canker in the mouth … is a rawness of the mouth and tongue, which is full of blisters.
1630. Wadsworth, Sp. Pilg., viii. 85. Who had halfe his nose eaten away with a Canker.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 99. 163. Women that have Cankers in their breasts.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3723/4. Her [a mare’s] Tongue almost eaten off with a Canker.
c. 1720. W. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, II. lxiii. (1738), 219. A mishapen or rusty Bit … will create those sort of Ulcers the Farriers call Cankers.
1752. Berkeley, Thoughts Tar-Water, Wks. III. 497. The foul disease, which with them passeth for a canker as they call it.
1831. Youatt, Horse, xix. (1847), 401. Canker is a separation of the horn from the sensible part of the foot.
† 2. Rust. Obs. exc. dial.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, I. 9. Choler, grene lyke to grene cankar of mettalls.
1557. Bible (Genev.), Matt. vi. 19. Wher the mothe and kanker corrupt.
1570. Levins, Manip., 71. The canker on iron, ferrugo.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Canker, rust; oxidization on any metal, but especially iron.
3. A disease of plants, esp. fruit-trees, characterized by slow decay of the bark and tissues.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 239. The disease of trees that the Latines caule Caries, which we may caule the worme or canker, being but a certeyne putrifaction.
1657. Austen, Fruit Trees, I. 54. Crab-trees … are usually free from the Canker.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., V. (1814), 264. The canker or erosion of the bark and wood is a disease produced often … by a poverty of soil.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric., I. 62. Such trees are … not liable to canker.
b. (See quot.)
1713. Lond. & Country Brewer, II. (1743), 92. Suffering others with their Shoes to tread on many of the Corns of the Malt while they lie working on the Floor, which is often attended with ill Consequences; for, by bruising the Kernels, there immediately commences the Growth of a Canker, that will show itself in a Bunch, turn green, [etc.].
4. A caterpillar, or any insect larva, which destroys the buds and leaves of plants; a canker-worm.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 60/2. Cankyr, worme of a tre, teredo.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, I. 6. The eyes of … Betles, Cankers, & such other.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. ii. 3. Some to kill Cankers in the muske rose buds.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 45. As killing as the canker to the rose.
1651. Raleigh’s Ghost, 111. The garden worm commonly called a Canker.
1782. Marshall, in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 217. Among the numerous enemies to which turnips are liable, none have proved more fatal here than the Black Canker (a species of Caterpillar).
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 102–3. The prophet [Jonah] was offended … that the canker was sent to destroy his own favorite plant.
† 5. An inferior kind of rose; the dog-rose (Rosa canina). Obs. exc. locally.
1582. Hester, Phiorav. Secr., I. xi. 11. The buddes of Cankers or wilde Eglantine.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 176. To put downe Richard, that sweet louely Rose, And plant this thorne, this Canker Bullingbrooke.
1623. Fletcher, Maid of Mill, 20. A white rose or a canker.
1846. Sowerby, Eng. Bot. (1864), III. 230. The Wild Rose is sometimes called the Canker in various parts of the Country.
b. A local name for (a.) the common Wild Poppy (Papaver Rhæas); (b.) the Dandelion (Leontodon Taraxacum); (c.) a toadstool or other fungus. (Britten & Holl.)
6. fig. (from senses 1–4) Anything that frets, corrodes, corrupts, or consumes slowly and secretly.
1564. Palfreyman, in Bauldwin’s Mor. Philos., To Rdr. That pestilent and most infectious canker, idlenesse.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1877), 105. Three cankers, which … wil eat vp the whole common welth.
1597–8. Bacon, Honour & Rep., Ess. (Arb.), 68. Enuie which is the canker of Honour.
1750. Beawes, Lex Mercat. (1752), 36. An extravagant Interest … is a sure Canker to their Fortunes.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. i. 17. The canker of Byzantian vice.
7. (See quot.: cf. CANKERED 4.)
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 455. The brains of a Leopard being mingled with a little quantity of the water which is called a Canker, and with a little Jasmine, and so mixed together, doth mitigate the pain or ach of the belly.
8. Comb., as canker-bit(ten, -eaten, -hearted, -like, -mouthed, -poisonous, -stomached, -toothed adjs.; canker-berry, the fruit of the Dog-rose; also the West Indian plant Solanum bahamense; canker-bloom, the blossom of the Dog-rose; canker-blossom, a worm that cankers a blossom, a canker (sense 4); also fig.; canker-eat v., to eat away like a canker; † canker-fly, app. some kind of caterpillar; canker-rash, a variety of scarlet fever in which the throat is ulcerated; canker-rose, (a.) the Dog-rose (= sense 5); (b.) the wild poppy (= sense 5 b), ‘from its colour, and from its injuring corn-land’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); cf. Turner’s name ‘red corn rose’; cankerweed, a dial. name of Ragweed; cankerwort, (a.) the Dandelion (= sense 5 b); (b.) ? = cancerwort (see CANCER.) See also CANKERFRET, CANKERWORM.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 174. The *Canker Berry. The berries are bitterish and thought to be very serviceable in sore throats.
1605. Shaks., Lear, V. iii. 122. My name is lost By Treasons tooth: bare-gnawne and *Canker-bit.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (1784), 187/1. His reputation canker-bitten by the venomous tooth of slander.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., liv. 5. The *Canker-bloomes have full as deepe a die As the perfumed tincture of the Roses. Ibid. (1590), Mids. N., III. ii. 282. You iugler, you *canker blossome You theefe of loue.
a. 1619. Daniel, Hist., 222. Those corruptions which Time hath brought forth to fret and *canker-eate [the state].
1593. Drayton, Eclog., X. 81. A leaveless *Canker-eaten Bow.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4847/4. Her [a mare’s] Tongue Canker-eaten.
1653. Walton, Angler, 98. There be of Flies, Caterpillars, and *Canker flies, and Bear flies.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut., clxvii. 1034. *Cankerhearted against God.
1559. Mirr. Mag., 704 (R.). [Dissimulation] *canker-like devours it to the root.
1820. Hoyle’s Games Impr., 434. They [cocks] may … become seam-eyed or *canker-mouthed.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 47. The *canker-poisonous chains.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 112. The Wild, or *Canker-Rose, called Cinosbaton.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., II. 233. Rosa canina (Common Dog-rose) … another of its names, the Canker-Rose.
1607. Lingua, III. ii. in Hazl., Dodsley, IX. 388. Those *canker-stomached, spiteful creatures.
1788. Burns, Let. Mrs. Dunlop, 27 Sept. (Globe), 428. A *canker-toothed, caterpillar critic.
