本文共 2108 字，大约阅读时间需要 7 分钟。
n./v. 溃疡，腐蚀，溃烂，毒害，弊害
1: to become infested with erosive or spreading sores
1：发生溃疡，伴随侵蚀性或者扩散性的疼痛2: to corrupt the spirit of
2：腐蚀灵魂3: to become corrupted
3：发生溃烂Canker is commonly known as the name for a type of spreading sore that eats into the tissue - a use that obviously furnished the verb with both its medical and figurative senses. The word ultimately traces back to Latin cancer, which can refer to a crab or a malignant tumor. The Greek have a similar word, karkinos, and according to ancient Greek physician Galen, the tumor got its name from the way the swollen veins surrounding the affected part resembled a crab’s limbs. Cancer was adopted into Old English, becoming canker in Middle English and eventually shifting in meaning to become a general term for ulcerations. Cancer itself was reintroduced to English later, first as a zodiacal word and then as a medical term.
词源词根演化：cancer(Latin. “crab” or “malignant tumor”) / karkinos (Greek, “tumor”) —> canker (ulceration)
Canker，中文译作“溃疡”，通常指一种扩散性的会侵入机体组织的疼痛的医学名称 - 这种用法很明显地给予了canker的医学含义和它的比喻引申含义。这个词最终可以追溯到拉丁单词cancer，意思是“crab 螃蟹”或者“恶性肿瘤 “malignant tumor”。希腊语中有一个类似的词，写作karkinos，据古希腊医师Galen，肿瘤之所以获得cancer(“crab”)这个名称，是由于肿大的血管围绕着受影响的肌体组织，很像螃蟹的大爪子。Cancer由Old English引入，到了Middle English时代变成了canker，最终canker变成了溃疡的通用名称。Cancer本身随后被再次引入到了英语中，最初是作为星座名称（即巨蟹座），然后是医学术语（即恶性肿瘤，癌症）。
注：furnish：装备，提供；ulceration：溃疡；zodiacal word：星座名称；medical term：医学术语
“Nevertheless, the self-absorption into which the lovers fall and the death and transfiguration with which the action ends have often been thought of as symptoms of a disease that canker the human condition.”
— Simon Williams, Wagner and the Romantic Hero, 2004 （注：不懂，大约是前面的self-absorption）被认为是某种疾病的症状，会侵蚀人类的生存条件。注：transfiguration：变形，美化，耶稣的变容，耶稣变容节
“They want to talk. They want to get it off their chest. Some people have been holding onto these things for years, just cankering their soul, but they don’t know where to say it.”
— Shannon Hale, quoted in The Deseret News, 12 Mar. 2018 他们想要发声，他们想要诉说。有些人被这些事情压制了好多年，灵魂都被侵蚀了，但是他们不知道到哪里诉求。转载地址：http://ippof.baihongyu.com/