An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Kanzel

by Friedrich Kluge

Kanzel, feminine, ‘pulpit,’ from Middle High German kanzel, Old High German cancella, chanzella, feminine, literally ‘the place set apart for the priests,’ then ‘pulpit’; from the equivalent Middle Latin cancellus, cancelli, ‘grating,’ cancelli altaris, ‘the grating enclosing the altar, the part separated, rom the nave of the church by a grating’; in Middle Latin generally ‘any part surrounded by a parapet, especially an oriental flat roof.’ “Qui vero Epistolas missas recitare volebant populo in regione Palæstinæ antiquitus, ascendebant super tectum et de cancellis recitabant et inde inolevit usus ut qui litteras principibus missas habent exponere Cancellarii usitato nomine dicantur” (du Cange). Hence Kanzler. From the same source, Middle Latin cancellus, is derived English chancel, taken from Old French, the meaning of which forms the starting-point for the development of the signification of the High German word.