cancelar

Forms

cancelar (first-person singular present cancelo, first-person singular preterite cancelé, past participle cancelado)^[1] Old Spanish wrote cancellar and cançelar; texts from the Americas of the 16th century have chançelar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin cancellō (“to cross out”), recorded in Alfonso X's legal works of 1256–1263.^[4][5][1] The Latin verb first meant to arrange like a lattice; from there it came to mean to cross out a text with lines drawn over it in a criss-cross pattern, and so to annul it.^[4][6][7] It is derived from cancellī (“lattice, grating”), plural of cancellus, a diminutive of cancer (“bars, lattice”).^[6][1][8]

The same verb is Portuguese cancelar, Catalan cancellar, Italian cancellare and Old French chanceler.^[9][10] In French it also developed the sense “to stagger”, which French chanceler keeps.^[8][1] From the same Latin family come cancel and canciller.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in Alfonso X's Espéculo, from before 1260, which explains that the chancery is so called because there letters badly made must be broken and cançellar “cancelled”.^[13] The Siete Partidas (1256–1263) speak of a debt paid and the document returned rota e cancelada “torn and cancelled”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

For centuries the verb was a legal term: to annul a public document by cutting it or defacing the notary's sign.^[15][16] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds the extended sense “to destroy, undo” with examples from Quevedo, and criticises the spelling chancelar.^[15] Domínguez (1846–1847) records the sense “to settle an account”, and the DLE now gives “to pay off a debt”.^[17][5] The modern general sense “to call off” (a trip, an appointment, a flight) is the first one in the DLE.^[5][18] In Ecuador and the Dominican Republic it also means “to dismiss from a job”, and in the Andean countries “to pay”.^[19][1] Wiktionary records a new sense, “to cancel” a person whose conduct is judged unacceptable.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1260 – Alfonso X's Espéculo has cançellar of documents.^[13]
• 1256–1263 – the Siete Partidas use the participle cancelada.^[14][4]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses Latin cancello as “to cut through a writing”.^[20]
• 1527 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City (chançelar).^[3]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the legal sense and a figurative one.^[15]
• 1846–1847 – Domínguez records the sense “to settle an account”.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cancel or annul an appointment, a ticket or a bank account; to call off something planned: Cancelaron el concierto por la lluvia.^[5][18][1]
2. To pay off or settle a debt.^[5][21]
3. To erase from memory; to abolish or repeal.^[5]
4. (Ecuador, Dominican Republic) To dismiss an employee.^[5][19]
5. (Andean countries) To pay, for instance a fee.^[1][19]

Related words

• cancelación
• cancel
• canciller
• Latin cancellō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cancelar
3. ^ a b 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. cancelar
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cancelar
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. cancelar
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. cancelar
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. cancellare
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 654
11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 141
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1335
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cancelar
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c 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. 167
17. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 326
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cancelar
19. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cancelar
20. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. cancelar
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cancelar