Chondrosarcoma

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A malignant neoplasm that develops from cartilage-forming cells in the body
2. A form of cancer characterized by abnormal growths arising from cartilage tissue
3. A cancerous growth that begins in the cells producing cartilage tissue

Etymology: Chondrosarcoma is a compound built from two Greek-derived parts, each with a plain literal meaning. "Chondros" is Greek for "grain" or "cartilage," a name rooted in the tissue's granular, gristly texture, while "sarkoma" comes from Greek "sarx," meaning "flesh," with the suffix "-oma" marking a tumour. Joined together, the word names a tumour of the flesh that arises from cartilage. Because the word is a modern technical coinage, it did not exist in ancient Greek or Latin medicine. Physicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries assembled it from these classical building blocks, a common method for naming newly recognised diseases. The pattern is the same as in related terms such as "osteosarcoma," which uses "osteon," meaning "bone," in place of "chondros."