THE FIRST WORD

canker

PRONUNCIATION:

(KANG-kuhr) 

MEANING:

noun:	1. A source of corruption or decay.
	2. Ulcerous sores in the mouth; also any of various diseases affecting animals and plants.
verb tr., intr.:	1. To corrupt or to become corrupted.
	2. To infect with or be infected with canker.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English cancer (crab, tumor). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kar-/ker- (hard), which also gave us standard, cancer, and hard. Earliest documented use: 1384.

USAGE:

"And in your family, so in the world ... we shall cut away the canker that infects us until only those of the true blood remain."
J.K. Rowling; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Bloomsbury; 2010.