An obsolete or variant spelling of canker, a disease affecting plants or a mouth ulcer in humans.
From Middle English and Old English, possibly from Latin cancer (crab), because the disease spreads like a crab. This spelling is archaic.
The word 'cancer' comes from the Latin for crab because tumors spread with crab-like claws—canc is an old spelling that shows how the same root word split into medical terms over time!
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