cancel

Forms

cancel m (plural canceles)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin cancellus (“lattice, latticed railing”), taken either as a learned word or through another Romance language, according to Corominas.^[2][3] The DLE, Moliner and Wiktionary name the intermediate language: for them it comes from Old French cancel.^[4][5][1]

Corominas notes an earlier form Old Spanish cancelo in Alfonso de Palencia (1490) and in Juan de Pineda at the end of the 16th century, and suggests that the shorter form grew out of it under the influence of the more numerous nouns in -el; otherwise it was taken from Old Occitan cancel (about 1400) or from Catalan cancell.^[2] The Catalan word is recorded from 1372, in Jaume March's rhyming dictionary.^[6] The western Ibero-Romance languages have popular forms of the same Latin noun: cancilla “latticed gate of a yard or garden” in Extremadura and León, Asturian canciella, also used in Sanabria, and Portuguese cancelo “small latticed gate”.^[2][7] Further afield the same word is French chancel, recorded from about 1130, and Italian cancello.^[8][1]

Classical Latin used the noun almost only in the plural, cancellī; the singular appears in late texts.^[2][8] It is a diminutive of cancer (“lattice, grating”).^[9][10] In Christian Latin it named the grille before the altar and the balustrade between the choir and the nave.^[8][11] From the same family Spanish has cancelar, taken from cancellare (“to cross out”), literally “to draw a lattice over the writing”, and canciller.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is a feminine la cancel in the Fuero de Alcaraz (before 1296), in a rule on a Jew who testifies against a debtor fuera de la cancel “outside the cancel”.^[12] The earliest clear record is in the accounts of Gonzalo de Baeza (1477–1491), which pay for a wooden cancel, a screen behind a door that keeps out draughts: Costo faser vn cancel de madera “it cost [so much] to make a wooden cancel”.^[13][12]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word named screens and partitions in churches as well as in houses: the Viaje de Turquía (1557–1558) describes an altar hidden behind a wall a manera de cançel with a door on each side.^[12] Covarrubias (1611) defines it as an enclosure of interwoven bars of iron or wood, which bars the way but lets sight and air through.^[14] Autoridades (1729) describes a screen of wood, cloth or leather before a door, which keeps out the air or hides what lies behind it; it also records the glass screen in the palace chapel behind which the king attended Mass and was treated as absent, and a figurative sense “limit, bound”, quoted from Illescas.^[15] The Academy's dictionary still described the church and hall screens at length in 1817, marking the sense “limit” as old.^[16]

In the Americas the word took the senses of a folding screen and a light partition: Malaret records it in Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and in Honduras for a thin brick wall.^[17][18] In the Río de la Plata, Paraguay and Mexico it is the gate between the entrance passage and the hall or patio, often feminine; in Mexico it is also a glass shower screen.^[4][19]

Timeline

• before 1296 – a feminine cancel in the Fuero de Alcaraz, the CDH's earliest hit.^[12]
• 1477–1491 – the accounts of Gonzalo de Baeza pay for a wooden cancel.^[13][12]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia uses the form cancelo.^[2]
• 1557–1558 – the Viaje de Turquía compares a wall before an altar to a cançel.^[12]
• 1565 – Illescas has cancel, the DCECH's first record of this form.^[2][3]
• 1573 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[20]
• 1590 – the derivative cancela is first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines the word as a lattice enclosure of iron or wood.^[14]
• 1729 – Autoridades records the screen, the figurative “limit” and the king's glass screen in the palace chapel.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives an etymology for the first time, from Latin cancelli “lattice”.^[21]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary derives the word from Old French cancel.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. A storm door: an inner door, usually of three leaves, one in front and two at the sides fixed to the jambs of an entrance, and covered by a roof, that keeps out draughts and noise.^[4][1]
2. A low grille (reja) or altar rail that separates the presbytery (presbiterio) from the nave of a church.^[4][23][1]
3. An upright frame of wood or another material that divides the space of a room; a partition.^[4][1]
4. (historical) In the palace chapel, the glass screen behind which the king attended incognito.^[4][15]
5. (Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay) The door or gate (verja) that separates the hall or patio from the entrance passage (zaguán), also feminine: Dejó la bicicleta junto a la cancel.^[4][19]
6. (Mexico) A glass shower screen; a light panel wall.^[19]
7. (obsolete) The limit to which something can extend.^[4][15]

Word family

• cancela

Related words

• cancelar
• canciller
• cancilla
• Latin cancellus
• Catalan cancell

Usage notes

Puerta cancel is the usual phrase for the inner door.^[4] In Ecuador cancel is used for cancela, a low gate at the threshold.^[19][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 797
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cancel
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cancel
5. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cancel
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 468
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cancel
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chancel
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cancellus
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. cancel
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. cancellus
12. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cancel
13. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 602
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 407
15. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 107
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 166
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 201
18. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 316
19. ^ a b c d Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cancel
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cancel
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 198
22. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cancel
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cancel