different between canker vs enormity

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kæ?k?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ?k?/
• Rhymes: -æ?k?(?)
• Hyphenation: can?ker

Etymology 1

From Middle English canker, cancre, from Old English cancer, akin to Dutch kanker, Old High German chanchar. Ultimately from Latin cancer (“a cancer”). Doublet of cancer, a later borrowing from Latin, and chancre, which came through French.

Noun

canker (countable and uncountable, plural cankers)

1. (phytopathology) A plant disease marked by gradual decay.
2. A region of dead plant tissue caused by such a disease.
   • 1977, The Potato: Major Diseases and Nematodes, International Potato Center, page 46:

     Slightly sunken brown cankers of variable size and shape affect stem parts primarily below the soil line.

3. A worm or grub that destroys plant buds or leaves; cankerworm.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 35:

     loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud ...

4. A corroding or sloughing ulcer; especially a spreading gangrenous ulcer or collection of ulcers in or about the mouth.
5. Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroys.
   • c. 1690', Sir William Temple, Of Heroick Virtue

     the cankers of envy and faction

6. A kind of wild rose; the dog rose.
   • ca. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, sc. 3:

     To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,

     An plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?

7. An obstinate and often incurable disease of a horse's foot, characterized by separation of the horny portion and the development of fungoid growths. Usually resulting from neglected thrush.
8. An avian disease affecting doves, poultry, parrots and birds of prey, caused by Trichomonas gallinae.

Synonyms

• (ulcer, especially of the mouth): water canker, canker of the mouth, noma
• (bird disease): avian trichomoniasis, roup
• (hawk disease): frounce

Related terms

• chancre

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English cankren, from the noun (see above).

Verb

canker (third-person singular simple present cankers, present participle cankering, simple past and past participle cankered)

1. (transitive) To affect as a canker; to eat away; to corrode; to consume.
   • 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 26:

     Still onward winds the dreary way; / I with it; for I long to prove / No lapse of moons can canker Love, / Whatever fickle tongues may say.

2. (transitive) To infect or pollute; to corrupt.
3. (intransitive) To waste away, grow rusty, or be oxidized, as a mineral.
4. (intransitive) To be or become diseased, or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous.
   • 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, sc. 1:

     as with age his body uglier grows,

     So his mind cankers.

   • 1971, E. M. Forster, Maurice, Penguin, 1972, Chapter 36, p. 156,^[1]

     […] the road, always in bad condition, was edged with dog roses that scratched the paint. Blossom after blossom crept past them, draggled by the ungenial year: some had cankered, others would never unfold:

References

• canker in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Neckar, nacker

Scots

Alternative forms

• cancre, cankyr, kanker

Etymology

Middle English canker, cancre, Old English cancer, akin to Dutch kanker, Old High German chanchar. From Latin cancer (“a cancer”).

Pronunciation

• (Southern Scots) IPA^(key): /?k????k?r/

Noun

canker (plural cankers)

1. Bad temper.

Verb

canker (third-person singular present cankers, present participle cankerin, past cankert, past participle cankert)

1. (archaic) To become bad-tempered, to fret, to worry.

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English ?norme (“monstrous or unnatural act; enormity”), from Old French énormité (“enormity”), from Latin ?normit?s (“irregularity; enormity”), from ?n?rmis (“irregular, unusual; enormous, immense”) + -it?s (suffix forming nouns indicating states of being). ?n?rmis is derived from e- (a variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘out; away’) + n?rma (“norm, standard”) + -is (Latin suffix forming adjectives from nouns).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??n??m?ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??n??m?ti/, /-?i/
• Hyphenation: enorm?i?ty

Noun

enormity (countable and uncountable, plural enormities)

1. (obsolete) Deviation from what is normal or standard; irregularity, abnormality.
2. (uncountable) Deviation from moral normality; extreme wickedness, nefariousness, or cruelty. [from 15th c.]
3. (countable) A breach of law or morality; a transgression, an act of evil or wickedness. [from 15th c.]
4. (uncountable) Great size; enormousness, hugeness, immenseness. [from 18th c.]

Usage notes

Enormity as a synonym for enormousness is sometimes considered an error, though other usage guides hold that there is little basis for the distinction. Both words ultimately go back to the same Latin source word ?n?rmis meaning “deviating from the norm, abnormal”.

Synonyms

• (deviation from what is normal or standard): anomalousness, oddness, weirdness; see also Thesaurus:strangeness
• (deviation from moral normality): atrociousness, depravity, immorality; see also Thesaurus:villainy
• (a breach of law or morality): desecration, violation
• (great size): immensity, prodigiousness

Related terms

Translations

References