chancre n : a small hard painless nodule at the site of entry of a pathogen (as syphilis)

English

Etymology

From the French chancer "cancer" from the Latin cancer.

Pronunciation

• /'ʃæŋ.kɚ/

Noun

1. Skin lesion, sometimes associated with certain contagious diseases like syphilis.

A chancre is a painless ulceration formed during the primary stage of syphilis. This infectious lesion forms approximately 21 days after the initial exposure to Treponema pallidum, the gram-negative spirochaete bacterium yielding syphilis. Chancres transmit the sexually transmissible disease of syphilis through direct physical contact. These ulcers usually form on or around the anus, mouth, penis, and vagina. Chancres may diminish between three to six weeks without the application of medication.

In addition, chancres are associated with the sleeping sickness, African trypanosomiasis, subsequent to the bite of a tsetse fly.

French disease, Spanish pox, VD, abscess, acquired syphilis, aposteme, balanitis gangrenosa, bed sore, blain, bleb, blister, boil, bubo, bulla, bunion, canker, canker sore, carbuncle, cerebral tabes, chancroid, chilblain, clap, claps, climatic bubo, cold sore, congenital syphilis, constitutional syphilis, dose, dose of clap, eschar, felon, fester, festering, fever blister, fifth venereal disease, fistula, furuncle, furunculus, gathering, general paresis, gonorrhea, granuloma inguinale, granuloma venereum, great pox, gumboil, hard chancre, hemorrhoids, kibe, latent syphilis, lesion, locomotor ataxia, morbus Gallicus, papula, papule, paralytic dementia, paresis, paronychia, parulis, petechia, piles, pimple, pock, polyp, pox, pudendal ulcer, pustule, rising, scab, simple chancre, social disease, soft chancre, sore, stigma, sty, suppuration, swelling, syph, syphilis, syphilitic meningoencephalitis, tabes, tabes dorsales, tertiary syphilis, tropical bubo, tubercle, ulcer, ulceration, venereal disease, wale, welt, wheal, whelk, whitlow, wound