Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Oncology
/ɒŋˈkɒlədʒi/noun
The branch of medicine that deals with tumours and cancer.
The Greek roots
ὄγκος
ónkos
mass, bulk, swelling
-λογία
-logía
study of
Literally: “study of lumps”
The story of the word
Ὄγκος meant bulk or burden in ordinary Greek and could describe a load on a cart or a swelling on a body. Doctors kept the physical sense and the word came into English medicine in the nineteenth century. Curiously, Greek has a second ὄγκος meaning the barb of an arrow, and the two are not related.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
oncologistoncogene
In a sentence
She was referred to oncology within a week of the scan.