Krebs

Meaning

1. (masculine,strong) crustacean, crab, crayfish
2. (masculine,strong) cancer (disease)
3. (masculine,strong) Cancer

Gender

♂️ Masculine

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kʁeːps/

Etymology

From Middle High German krebz, krebez, krebeze, from Old High German crebiz, krebiz, from Proto-West Germanic *krabit, from Proto-Germanic *krabitaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”), see also Old Prussian gīrbin (“number”), Old Church Slavonic жрѣбии (žrěbii, “lot, tallymark”), Ancient Greek γράφειν (gráphein, “to scratch, etch”), Dutch kreeft.
The sense “cancer” is a semantic loan from Latin cancer. By metathesis from Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab”); applied to cancerous tumors because the enlarged veins resembled the legs of a crab.