ancilla

From Latin ancilla (“maid, slave-girl”).

• IPA^(key): /ænˈsɪ.lə/
• Rhymes: -ɪlə

ancilla (plural ancillae)

1. A maid.
   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 306:

     ‘And pass me that towel,’ added Ada, but the ancilla was picking up coins she had dropped in her haste […]

2. An auxiliary or accessory
   • 2009 January 23, Ryo Okamoto et al., “An Entanglement Filter”, in Science‎, volume 323, number 5913, →DOI:

     The filter achieves this two-qubit filtering effect by using two ancilla photons as probes that detect whether or not the two input photons are in the desired states.

• ancillary

• aclinal

From ancula (“maid”) +‎ -lus.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /anˈkil.la/, [äŋˈkɪlːʲä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /anˈt͡ʃil.la/, [än̠ʲˈt͡ʃilːä]

ancilla f (genitive ancillae); first declension

1. maid, slave-girl
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.551:

     cūr vetet ancillās accēdere, quaeritis?

     Why does she forbid slave-girls to approach, you ask?

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Lucas 1:38:

     Dīxit autem Maria : Ecce ancilla Dominī : fīat mihi secundum verbum tuum.

     And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.

First-declension noun.

• ancillātus
• ancula

• “ancilla”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ancilla”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ancilla in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• ancilla in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• “ancilla”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ancilla”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin