ancillary

Etymology

From Latin ancillāris (“ancillary; relating to maids”), from ancilla (“maid”).

adj

  1. Subordinate; secondary; auxiliary.
    […] how easily he took all things along with him,—the persons, the opinions, and the day, and nature became ancillary to a man. 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Chapter 3
    [E]very organ of the body, whatever function it may perform, must also perform the other four functions in an ancillary manner. 1898, John Wesley Powell, “Chapter 7”, in Truth and Error
    The cafeteria is primarily used by students and staff (academic, administrative, and ancillary). 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 4

noun

  1. Something that serves an ancillary function, such as an easel for a painter.
  2. (archaic) An auxiliary.

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/ancillary), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.