scan
pronunciation
How to pronounce scan in British English:
UK [skæn]
How to pronounce scan in American English:
US [skæn]
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- Noun:
- the act of scanning; systematic examination of a prescribed region
- an image produced by scanning
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- Verb:
- examine minutely or intensely
- examine hastily
- make a wide, sweeping search of
- conform to a metrical pattern
- move a light beam over; in electronics, to reproduce an image
- read metrically
- obtain data from magnetic tapes
Word Origin
- scan
- scan: [14] Latin scandere meant ‘climb’ (it has given English ascend and descend). In the postclassical period it was used metaphorically for ‘analyse the rising and falling rhythm of poetry’, and it was in this sense that it passed into English as scan. It was broadened out semantically to ‘examine’ in the 16th century, and to ‘look at widely’ in the 18th century. The Latin past participle scansus formed the basis of the noun scansiō, from which English gets scansion [17].=> ascend, descend, scandal
- scan (v.)
- late 14c., "mark off verse in metric feet," from Late Latin scandere "to scan verse," originally, in classical Latin, "to climb, rise, mount" (the connecting notion is of the rising and falling rhythm of poetry), from PIE *skand- "to spring, leap, climb" (cognates: Sanskrit skandati "hastens, leaps, jumps;" Greek skandalon "stumbling block;" Middle Irish sescaind "he sprang, jumped," sceinm "a bound, jump"). Missing -d in English is probably from confusion with suffix -ed (see lawn (n.1)). Sense of "look at closely, examine minutely (as one does when counting metrical feet in poetry)" first recorded 1540s. The (opposite) sense of "look over quickly, skim" is first attested 1926. Related: Scanned; scanning.
- scan (n.)
- 1706, "close investigation," from scan (v.). Meaning "act of scanning" is from 1937; sense of "image obtained by scanning" is from 1953.
Example
- 1. The glass also must be cleaned after each scan .
- 2. Lists are another way to help readers scan text .
- 3. Navy seals would go in early and scan designated areas .
- 4. Before we scan the present landscape , it is worth slaying a couple of shibboleths .
- 5. The scan says the unborn child is a girl .