chancel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chauncel, also chaunsel,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman chauncell and Old French chancel,^[4][5][2] from Late Latin cancellus (“part of the church around the altar; rail between choir and nave”),^[4] a transferred use of classical Latin cancellus (“latticework”), usually in the plural cancellī (“grating, bars, crossbars”).^[4][6][7] That word is a diminutive of cancer (“crossed bars, lattice”),^[8][9][6] perhaps a dissimilated form of carcer (“barrier, prison”).^[8][9] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1136–65.^[10] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford give the modern French form as cancel,^[8][9] and the OED as chancel.^[4] The OED compares Spanish cancel (“inner door, altar rail, screen”), Italian cancello (“gate”), German Kanzel (“pulpit”), Dutch kansel (“pulpit”) and Welsh cangell (“chancel”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The space around the altar of a church: about 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, where the unlearned man is forbidden to stand yn þe chaunsel whyl men rede.^[2][3][11] The MED cites that text from a manuscript of before 1400, and the revised OED's first quotation is from before 1325, in a life of St Mary Magdalen.^[2][4] Etymonline gives about 1300.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Latin, a word for latticework came to mean the lattice that set off the altar area, and then that area itself, so that the name moved from the barrier to the space behind it;^[3][6] the OED records the Latin sense "part of the church around the altar" from the 5th century and "rail between choir and nave" from the 6th.^[4] The 1989 edition of the OED also notes the word for a latticed-off division of the ancient basilica,^[11] and Brewer explained it from the screen that divided lawyers from the public in Roman courts.^[12] French and Anglo-Norman kept both the screen and the space,^[4][10] while the MED and the OED record the English word for the space and what resembles it.^[2][4] In Chaucer's Miller's Tale freres in the chauncel gonne synge.^[2] It was applied by about 1400 to other buildings such as the temple at Jerusalem,^[11] and figuratively from 1532, a use now rare.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as the eastern part of the church, where the altar stands, and explained the name from the lattices that enclosed it.^[13] Today Merriam-Webster also allows a similar section in a building that is not a church.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1303 – the space around the altar, as chaunsel.^[2][3] The revised OED's first quotation is from before 1325.^[4]
• c. 1390 – the spelling chauncel, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.^[3][2]
• c. 1400 – of other buildings, such as heathen temples (now obsolete).^[11]
• 1532 – figurative use, in the printed Testament of Love of Usk.^[4]
• 1832 – in compounds, such as chancel-arch and chancel-screen.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The area around the altar of a church, set apart for the clergy and choir and usually divided from the nave by steps, a rail or a screen: The vicar walked slowly up the steps into the chancel.^[4][14][15]
2. A similar section in a building other than a church.^[14]

Word family

• chanceled

Related words

• chancellor
• chancellory
• chancellery
• cancel
• cancelli

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, new ed., London: Cassell
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins