Carcinogenic

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌkɑː(ɹ)sɪnəˈd͡ʒɛnɪk/

Definitions

1. Capable of causing cancer or promoting the growth of malignant tumors in living tissue
2. Tending to produce or induce cancerous growths in organisms exposed to the substance
3. Having the capacity to initiate or accelerate the development of malignant tumors within biological systems

Etymology: The word is a modern scientific compound, built from "carcino-", meaning cancer, and "-genic", meaning producing or causing. The first part comes from Ancient Greek "karkinos", a crab, which was applied to tumours because of the way cancerous growths spread out their veins and claws, a comparison that goes back to Hippocrates. The second part traces to Greek "génos", birth or origin, through the adjective-forming suffix "-genēs", which gave English a whole family of words meaning "producing" something, such as "-genic" in "photogenic" or "allergenic." Because "carcino-" is a combining form, it was built from classical roots and never existed as a single word in Greek or Latin. Ancient physicians had no word of this exact shape, so the term belongs to the age of modern medicine. The "-ic" ending came into English through Latin and Old French, and "-genic" itself became common as a productive suffix in scientific English, letting researchers coin new adjectives for whatever caused a particular effect.

Synonyms: cancer-causing, tumorigenic, malignant, cancerous, hazardous

Antonyms: non-carcinogenic, safe, benign, harmless, non-toxic