Daily AncestorCarcinoma
Carcinoma was the medical word for a cancer; on early 1900s certificates doctors were asked to write carcinoma of the organ affected.
The word comes from Greek for crab or cancer. Webster's 1913 defines carcinoma simply as a cancer, adding that some medical writers used it for a slow-growing tumor.
The 1911 Census Bureau manual preferred carcinoma or sarcoma of a named organ to the vaguer cancer, so a certificate of the 1910s may read carcinoma of stomach, uterus or liver.
As seen in a recordCause of death line, state death certificate, 1910s to 1930s
Cause: Carcinoma of stomach. Duration: 8 mos.
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Carcinoma." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/carcinoma. Last checked 2026-10-12.