ancilla

American  

[an-sil-uh] / ænˈsɪl ə /

noun

ancillas plural

1. an accessory; auxiliary or adjunct.

2. Archaic. a maidservant.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• ancillas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ancilla

First recorded in 1870–75; from Latin: literally, “handmaid,” diminutive of ancula “maid,” from unrecorded anquola, equivalent to an-, a variant of ambi- “around” + -quola, noun derivative of the root kwel-, kwol- “turn about,” hence “one who circles around”; cognate with Greek amphípolos “attendant”; see origin at ambi-, amphi-, ancile