Where does “cancel” come from?
Cancel comes from Middle English cancellen, from Anglo-Norman canceler, from Latin cancellāre meaning to cross out or strike through, derived from cancelli, a lattice or grating.
cancel (English): To cross out something with lines etc; To...
Definitions
- To cross out something with lines etc; To...
Ancestry of “cancel”, step by step
cancel traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English cancellen
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | cancellen | To cross out or efface (writing, a record, etc.); to obliterate |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | canceler | to cross out with lines |
| 3 | Old French | canceler | — |
| 4 | Latin | cancellāre | — |
| 5 | Latin | cancelli | inflection of cancellus: ## genitive singular ##... |
| 6 | Latin | cancer | a crab; a tumor, cancer; a lattice, grid, or... |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | kankros | crab |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | karkros | enclosure, barrier |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | kr̥-kr̥- | circular |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)ker- | to cut off; to turn, bend |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | sek- | to cut, cut off, sever |
via Latin cancellus
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | cancellus | one of the bars which, in the form of a grid,... |