chancellor: [11] Etymologically, a chancellor was an attendant or porter who stood at the cancellī, or ‘lattice-work bar’, of a court in Roman times – hence the Latin term cancellārius. Over the centuries the cancellārius’s status rose to court secretary, in due course with certain legal functions. The word came into English, via Anglo-Norman canceler or chanceler, in the time of Edward the Confessor, denoting the king’s official secretary, a post which developed into that of Lord Chancellor, head of the English judiciary.
The court over which he presides, Chancery, gets its name by alteration from Middle English chancellerie, which came from an Old French derivative of chancelier ‘chancellor’. The word’s ultimate source, Latin cancellī ‘cross-bars, lattice, grating’ (a diminutive form of cancer ‘lattice’), came to be applied to the part of a church or other building separated off by such a screen: hence, via Old French, English chancel ‘part of a church containing the altar and choir’ [14].
And a metaphorical application of the notion of a lattice or bars crossing each other has given English cancel [14], via Latin cancellāre and Old French canceller, which originally meant ‘cross something out’. => cancel, chancel
chancellor (n.)
early 12c., from Old French chancelier (12c.), from Late Latin cancellarius "keeper of the barrier, secretary, usher of a law court," so called because he worked behind a lattice (Latin cancellus) at a basilica or law court (see chancel). In the Roman Empire, a sort of court usher; the post gradually gained importance in the Western kingdoms. A variant form, canceler, existed in Old English, from Old North French, but was replaced by this central French form.
双语例句
1. The new Chancellor has the guts to push through unpopular tax increases.
新总理有勇气推动不受欢迎的增税方案获得通过。
来自柯林斯例句
2. They are pressing the Chancellor to reduce excise duty on beer.
他们正给总理施压，要求降低啤酒的消费税。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Chancellor Helmut Kohl was the leading cheerleader for German unification.
赫尔穆特·科尔总理是德国统一的主要支持者。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The Chancellor is boxed in by inflation targets and sterling.
财政大臣被通货膨胀目标和英镑逼得束手无策。
来自柯林斯例句
5. This boom has been engineered by the Chancellor for short-term political reasons.