Etymology

ruumiin ‎(“of the body”) +‎ mato ‎(“worm”), from the belief that cancer is caused by a worm that eats the body from inside. This term appears in the Finnish translation of the Bible from the year 1776 (2. Tim 2:17), which was used until 1938. In 1938 translation the modern term syöpä is used. In the 1648 translation the corresponding term is Crapu, which is an obsolete spelling of rapu ‎(“crab, crayfish”) and calqued on Latin cancer.