A gangrenous or ulcerous condition, particularly one affecting the mouth or cheeks; also called noma or cancrum oris in medical terminology.
From Latin cancrum, related to cancer, literally meaning crab. Medieval physicians called gangrenous ulcers 'cancrum' because the spreading sores resembled a crab's spreading claws.
This medical term shows how ancient doctors used animal metaphors to describe disease—the 'crab-like' way infections spread outward in all directions made the comparison so vivid that the name stuck for centuries.
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