scan

English

Etymology

From late Middle English scanne (“to mark off verse to show metrical structure”), from earlier scanden, from Late Latin scandere (“to scan verse”), from Classical Latin scandō (“I climb, rise, mount”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skæn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æn

Verb

scan (third-person singular simple present scans, present participle scanning, simple past and past participle scanned)

1. (transitive) To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.

   She scanned the passage carefully but could not find what she was looking for.

   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter ii:

     Yet the incident did not in the least diminish my respect for my teacher. I was by nature blind to the faults of elders. Later I came to know of many other failings of this teacher, but my regard for him remained the same. For I had learnt to carry out the orders of elders, not to scan their actions.

   • 1965, Frank Hebert, “Book Three: The Prophet”, in Dune‎ (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 402‎:

     Slowly, he scanned the horizon, listening, watching for the signs he had been taught.

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

     As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard. The train is a '221'+'220' combo to allow for social distancing - a luxury on an XC train as normally you're playing sardines, so I make the most of it.

   He scanned the horizon.

   1. (computing, transitive) To inspect, analyse or go over, often to find something.

      to scan the hard drive for errors

2. (transitive) To look about for; to look over quickly.
   1. (computing, transitive) To perform lexical analysis; to tokenize.
3. (computing, medicine, transitive) To create an image of something with the use of a scanner.

   to scan a photograph

   to scan internal organs by means of computed tomography

   Pencil drawings don't scan very well.

4. (computing, transitive) To read with an electronic device.

   to scan a barcode

   to scan a QR code

   • 2024 February 7, Philip Haigh, “Network News: TPE MD: consider impact of strikes on passengers”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 11:

     In the dispute with the RMT about scanning tickets, Jackson said it was the right thing to do to pay conductors something to scan tickets. Northern pays two pence per scan, Jackson noted, adding that ticket scanning helps to cut fraud and increase staff visibility.

5. (obsolete, transitive, originally) To mount by steps; to go through with step by step.
   • 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, , →OCLC, stanza LXIII, page 36:

     But ere these matchless heights I dare to scan, / There is a spot should not be pass'd in vain,— / Morat ! the proud, the patriot field ! where man / May gaze on ghastly trophies of the slain, […]

6. (poetry, transitive) To read or mark so as to show a specific metre.
   • 1886, Francis Barton Gummere, A Handbook of Poetics for Students of English Verse, page 218:

     In such cases as these, almost any one with a good ear will "scan" the verse correctly enough without instruction. It is not proposed to give here a list of Shakspere's slurred and contracted words; […]

7. (poetry, intransitive) To conform to a metrical structure.
   • 1998, Milton Acorn, Cedric Smith, edited by James Deahl, The Road to Charlottetown: A Play‎, UnMon Northland:

     You're right, sir, it doesn't scan very well in the English, but in the Gaelic it's sheer poetry. Have you the Gaelic?

Usage notes

• The contranym status of the word is discussed at peruse § Usage notes.

Derived terms

• forescan

Related terms

• (poetry): scansion

Descendants

• ⇒ Lithuanian: skenuoti

Translations

Noun

scan (plural scans)

1. Close investigation.
2. (computing) An instance of scanning.

   The operators vacated the room during the scan.

   • 2024 February 7, Philip Haigh, “Network News: TPE MD: consider impact of strikes on passengers”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 11:

     In the dispute with the RMT about scanning tickets, Jackson said it was the right thing to do to pay conductors something to scan tickets. Northern pays two pence per scan, Jackson noted, adding that ticket scanning helps to cut fraud and increase staff visibility.

3. (computing) The result or output of a scanning process.

   The doctors looked at the scans and made a diagnosis.

4. (functional programming) A higher-order function that applies a binary operation to a sequence of values, starting with an accumulator, and returns a new sequence with the results.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• pan and scan
• scanlate
• scanlation
• scanlator
• scanner

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “scan”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “scan”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “scan”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “scan”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• ANCs, CNAs, CNSA, NCSA, NSCA, cans

Romanian

Noun

scan m (plural scani)

1. Obsolete form of scaun.

Declension

References

• scan in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN