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Webster 1913 Edition

Ancillary

An′cil-la-ry

,
Adj.
[L.
ancillaris
, fr.
ancilla
a female servant.]
Subservient or subordinate, like a handmaid; auxiliary.
The Convocation of York seems to have been always considered as inferior, and even
ancillary
, to the greater province.
Hallam.

Webster 1828 Edition

Ancillary

AN'CILLARY

,
Adj.
[L. ancilla, a female servant.]
Pertaining to a maid servant, or female service; subservient as a maid servant.

Definition 2024

ancillary

ancillary

English

Adjective

ancillary ‎(comparative more ancillary, superlative most ancillary)

  1. Subordinate; secondary; auxiliary; accessory.
    • 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Chapter 3:
      […] how easily he took all things along with him,—the persons, the opinions, and the day, and nature became ancillary to a man.
    • 1898, John Wesley Powell, Truth and Error, Chapter 7
      [E]very organ of the body, whatever function it may perform, must also perform the other four functions in an ancillary manner.

Translations

Noun

ancillary ‎(plural ancillaries)

  1. Something that serves an ancillary function, such as an easel for a painter.
  2. (archaic) An auxiliary.

Translations

References

  1. ↑ “ancillary” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).
  • ancillary in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • ancillary in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
  • ancillary at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

Etymology

From Latin ancillāris, from ancilla ‎(“maid”), diminutive of ancula, feminine of anculus ‎(“a male servant”), from *ancus ‎(“a servant”), from ambi- ‎(“about”) + Proto-Indo-European *kwol-o-, from base *kwel- ‎(“move round, turn about, be much about”).[1]

See ambi- for cognate terms of prefix, such as ambulate; cycle is cognate from the Proto-Indo-European root.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈænsəˌleriː/
  • Rhymes: -iː

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