scan

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*skend-
2. Proto-Italic*skandō
3. Latinscandō
4. Middle Englishscanden
5. Middle Englishscanne
6. English todayscan

From late Middle English scanne (“to mark off verse to show metrical structure”), from earlier scanden, from Late Latin scandere (“to scan verse”), from Classical Latin scandō (“to climb, rise, mount”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan”).

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 16th C. To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.
• from 16th C. To inspect, analyse or go over, often to find something.
• from 19th C. To look about for; to look over quickly.
• from 19th C. To perform lexical analysis; to tokenize.
• from 14th C. To read or mark so as to show a specific metre.
• from 1700s Of written things, a careful reading.
• from 1700s Of written things, a cursory reading: a skim.