cancellare

Forms

cancellare (first-person singular present cancèllo, first-person singular past historic cancellài, past participle cancellàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also wrote cançellare.^[2] The popular form is scancellare.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cancellō (“to make a lattice; to cross out”).^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The Latin verb comes from cancellī (“lattice, railings”) (whence cancello): writing was struck out with crossing lines that formed a small grating.^[4][5][6][9] Pliny uses it for an octopus folding its arms crosswise, and, from the 2nd century it means to annul a writing by striking it through.^[10] The same verb is Old French canceler, Old Occitan canselar, Catalan cancellar, Spanish cancelar and Portuguese cancelar.^[5][11][10]

The LEI considers the forms of the sense “to cross out” learned throughout Romance: a popular word would have given /nts/ in the north and /dd/ in the far south, but the dialects mostly have /ntʃ/ and /ll/.^[10] The sense “to call off (an appointment, a flight)” is a calque of English cancel.^{[4][3][7][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Sienese document of 1277–1282, where the verb means to strike out with pen strokes;^[2][5][4] DELI dates the sense “to annul” to 1280.^[2][5][4] Dante has it in the Paradiso: Ma tu che sol per cancellare scrivi, “But you who write only to cancel”.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for annulling, condoning a sentence, absolving, extinguishing a debt, removing a name from a list and expelling someone from a company.^[2] The old sense “to shut with a gate” survived in the 14th-century translation of Crescenzi.^[13][2] With the noun cancellatura (1293–1306) and cancellazione (1355–1356) the word family was complete early.^[4]

From writing the verb passed to wiping a surface clean, to time and damp effacing a fresco, and figuratively to erasing a memory.^[6][3] The sense “to call off a visit or appointment” is recorded in 1942, after English.^[4] In computing it means to delete data.^[6] The blackboard eraser, cancellino, is recorded in 1955.^[4]

Timeline

• 1277–1282 – A Sienese document gives the first record.^[2][5]
• 1280 – The sense “to annul” is recorded.^[4][6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the verb in the Paradiso.^[4]
• 1355–1356 – Cancellazione is recorded.^[4]
• 1942 – The sense “to call off” appears, after English cancel.^[4]
• 1955 – Cancellino “blackboard eraser” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cross out or erase writing or a drawing, with pen strokes, a rubber or correction fluid: Ho cancellato due righe della lettera.^[6][3][7]
2. To clean a surface of writing: Cancella pure la lavagna, ho finito.^[6][3]
3. To efface, damage: La pioggia ha cancellato le scritte sul muro.^[6][3]
4. To strike off a list, cancellare dalla memoria, to forget: Mi hanno cancellato dall'elenco degli invitati.^[6][3][7]
5. To extinguish a debt; to wipe out a disgrace.^[6][3]
6. To cancel, call off: Il volo per Parigi è stato cancellato.^[6][3][7]
7. (computing) To delete data.^[6]
8. (archaic) To close with a gate or grating; to cross one's arms or legs.^[6][7]

Word family

• cancellabile
• cancellatura
• cancellazione
• cancellino
• incancellabile
• scancellare

Related words

• cancello
• cancelliere
• Latin cancellō
• English cancel

Usage notes

Old Italian had a second verb cancellare, “to totter, waver”, of soldiers about to flee or a ship tacking;^{[8][2][10][13]} DEI gives it a numbered entry of its own, and the TLIO and the LEI take it from Old French chanceler, beside the form ciancellare.^{[8][2][10][13]}

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 714
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 603
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 220