Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday June 16, 2004
ancillary \AN-suh-lair-ee\ , adjective:
1. Subordinate; subsidiary.
2. Auxiliary; helping.
noun:
1. Something that is subordinate to something else.
The dining room, never used except as an ancillary larder, a cool place in which to set jellies and store meat, eggs and fish for the cat, is unchanged in essentials since I first came here in 1945.
-- Angela Carter, Shaking a Leg
The forty-two active divisions, comprising 600,000 men, would on mobilisation take with them into the field another twenty-five reserve divisions and ancillary reserve units, raising the war strength of the army to over three million.
-- John Keegan, The First World War
Narrow streets, reeking of horse and pig manure, were crowded with boardinghouses, countless shops and warehouses, and a sea of trade signs, all surrounded by a forest of masts, intricate webs of spars and rigging, shipyard ways, ropewalks, breweries, a distillery, and grog shops -- the innumerable ancillaries of a booming seaport.
-- Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga
Ancillary comes from Latin ancillaris, from ancilla, "female servant."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for ancillary
