Cancellarius

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A title historically used for the head of a chapel or administrative office, often associated with a chancellor in a medieval context
2. Referring to an official position responsible for administrative duties in ecclesiastical or university settings
3. An office that served as a record keeper or secretary in various historical governments or institutions

Etymology: Roman officials gave this word its original shape. The Latin "cancelli" were lattice railings, and a "cancellarius" was a clerk posted behind them, where petitioners handed in requests and documents were checked. The barrier was the point of the job, marking off the official's space from the public's. The sense then widened. Clerks who drafted, copied and sealed documents for a ruler or church kept the title, and in medieval Latin "cancellarius" came to mean a senior secretary or keeper of the seal, and the head of such an office. European languages later took the term for the highest minister of a state or the head of a university. The Latin "cancellus" meant a crossed bar or lattice, a plain physical object from which the office got its name.

Synonyms: chancellor