different between curse vs canker

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s

Etymology 1

From Middle English curse, kors, cors, curs, from Old English cors, curs (“curse”), of unknown origin.

Noun

curse (plural curses)

1. A supernatural detriment or hindrance; a bane.
2. A prayer or imprecation that harm may befall someone.
3. The cause of great harm, evil, or misfortune; that which brings evil or severe affliction; torment.
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Toilus and Cressida, Act II, sc. 3:

     The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance ...

4. A vulgar epithet.
5. (slang, dated, derogatory, usually with "the") A woman's menses.

Derived terms

• curse of Scotland

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: kosi

Translations

• This translation table is meant for translations approximating the derogatory or strongly negative nature of this term in English. For standard translations, see the translation table at menstruation.

Etymology 2

From Middle English cursen, corsen, coursen, from Old English corsian, cursian (“to curse”), from the noun (see above).

Verb

curse (third-person singular simple present curses, present participle cursing, simple past and past participle cursed or (archaic) curst)

1. (transitive) To place a curse upon (a person or object).

   • Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […] ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

2. To call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon; to imprecate evil upon; to execrate.
   • 1611, Bible (King James Version), Exodus xxii. 28

     Thou shalt not […] curse the ruler of thy people.

3. (transitive) To speak or shout a vulgar curse or epithet.
4. (intransitive) To use offensive or morally inappropriate language.
   • 1611, Bible (King James Version), Matthew xxi. 74

     Then began he to curse and to swear.

   Synonym: swear

5. To bring great evil upon; to be the cause of serious harm or unhappiness to; to furnish with that which will be a cause of deep trouble; to afflict or injure grievously; to harass or torment.
   • 1703, Alexander Pope, Thebais

     On impious realms and barbarous kings impose / Thy plagues, and curse 'em with such sons as those.

Antonyms

• bless

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: kosi

Translations

Anagrams

• Cruse, Cures, Sucre, crues, cruse, cuers, cures, ecrus, sucre

Latin

Participle

curse

1. vocative masculine singular of cursus

Portuguese

Verb

curse

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of cursar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of cursar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of cursar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of cursar

Romanian

Noun

curse f pl

1. plural of curs?

Spanish

Verb

curse

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of cursar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of cursar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of cursar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of cursar.

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.