Etymologically
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scanner

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 06:28. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈskænə/[1]
  • US: /ˈskænɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English scan + -er.[2][3][4][5] The verb scan is from Latin scandō (“to climb; in Late Latin, to scan verse”),[2][6][7] first as scanden before 1398 and as scannen from 1440.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who scans or critically examines something: 1557, in Robert Recorde's The Whetstone of Witte;[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1556 and Etymonline to the 1550s.[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The agent noun followed the verb, whose sense "to examine closely" is recorded from 1550, after the earlier "to divide verse into metrical feet".[8] A scanner of verse is recorded from 1800.[2] The word was applied to a mechanical device that examines all parts of something systematically from 1927, at first often in television,[2][3] where from 1929 it named devices that transmit or rebuild an image in sequence.[2] In the mid-20th century it was used of the rotating radar aerial (1946) and of medical machines that measure radiation from the body (1951),[2][3] and later of digital readers for computers.[3]

Timeline

  • 1557 – a person who examines critically.[2]
  • 1800 – a person who scans verse.[2]
  • 1927 – a device for systematically examining all parts of something.[2][3]
  • 1929 – television, a device for the sequential transmission of an image.[2]
  • 1946 – a rotating radar aerial.[2]
  • 1951 – a medical machine for scanning the body.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A device that scans something systematically, especially one that reads recorded data such as a bar code, or that converts a document or picture into digital form.[10][9][3]
  2. A machine for producing images of the inside of the body for diagnosis, as a CAT scanner.[10][2]
  3. A radar aerial that rotates or swings to scan a wide area.[10][2]
  4. In television, a device for transmitting an image piece by piece or rebuilding it in a receiver.[2]
  5. A device that checks a process or condition automatically and may correct it.[9]
  6. A person who scans or examines something closely.[10][9][2]
  7. A person who scans verse.[9][2]

Word family

  • CAT scanner

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins