chancellor

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker-redup.
2. Proto-Indo-European*kr̥kros
3. Proto-Italic*karkros
4. Proto-Italic*kankros
5. Latincancer
6. Latincancellus
7. Latincancellārius
8. Old Frenchcancelier
9. Anglo-Normanchaunceler
10. Middle Englishchaunceler
11. English todaychancellor

From Anglo-Norman or Middle English chaunceler, chanceler, canceler (“chief administrative or executive officer of a ruler; chancellor, secretary; private secretary, scribe; Lord Chancellor of England; officer of the ruler's exchequer; a high administrative or executive officer (for example, a deputy or representative of a bishop; the head of a university)”), from Old French cancelier, chancelier (“chancellor”), from Late Latin cancellārius (“secretary; doorkeeper, porter; usher of a court of law stationed at the bars separating the public from the judges”), from Latin cancellī (plural of cancellus (“grate; bars, barrier; railings”), diminutive of cancer (“grid; barrier”), from Proto-Italic *karkros (“enclosure”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn”)) + -ārius (suffix forming nouns denoting an agent of use). Equivalent to chancel + -or. Piecewise doublet of canceler. The word was present as Late Old English canceler, cancheler, from Norman cancheler, but was displaced in the 13th century by the Old French and Anglo-Norman forms mentioned above.

Words from the same roots