Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Sarcoma
/sɑːrˈkoʊmə/noun
A cancer arising in connective tissue such as bone, muscle, fat or cartilage.
The Greek roots
σάρξ
sárx
flesh
-ωμα
-ōma
growth, tumour
Literally: “fleshy growth”
The story of the word
σάρξ is flesh and the ending marks a swelling, so a sarcoma is a fleshy growth, distinguished in modern medicine from the carcinomas that begin in the linings of organs. The same σάρξ built sarcophagus, flesh-eater, from a limestone that Greeks believed consumed a body laid in it. Sarcasm belongs there too, from σαρκάζω, to tear the flesh.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
sarcophagussarcasmcarcinomasarcoplasm
In a sentence
Sarcomas are rare, which is part of why they are so often caught late.