Scan

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /skæn/

Definitions

1. A systematic examination of something by looking over it quickly or carefully, or the process of converting printed images into digital format using specialized equipment
2. The act of rapidly inspecting an object or text is involved, while also denoting the process of digitizing visual content using technological means
3. To quickly look through or survey something to find information or check details ; to produce a digital copy of a physical item using a scanning device

Etymology: Scan began as a word about poetry, not screens. In late Middle English, "scanne" meant to mark off verse to show its metrical structure, counting out the beats and syllables line by line. It came from the earlier "scanden," which was borrowed from Late Latin "scandere," meaning "to scan verse," and that in turn came from classical Latin "scandere," "to climb, rise, mount." The climbing sense is the key to the link. Latin poets and grammarians treated a line of verse as something you step up through, foot by foot, so the act of reading out its rhythm was a kind of ascent. The Proto-Indo-European root behind it carried ideas of jumping, darting, climbing and scaling, and that same sense of moving steadily across a space is what the modern meaning inherits: to scan a page is to move the eye across it, taking in the whole to pick out what matters. The shift from scanning verse to scanning a document or image happened gradually, and the mechanical sense of passing a beam or sensor over an object to capture it arrived much later, with the devices that gave the verb its present-day use.

Synonyms: examine, inspect, scrutinize, review, search

Antonyms: ignore, overlook, neglect, disregard, miss