- scan (v.)
- late 14c., "mark off verse in metric feet," from L.L. scandere "to scan verse," originally, in classical L., "to climb" (the connecting notion is of the rising and falling rhythm of poetry), from PIE *skand- "to spring, leap" (cf. Skt. skandati "hastens, leaps, jumps;" Gk. skandalon "stumbling block;" M.Ir. sescaind "he sprang, jumped," sceinm "a bound, jump"). Missing -d in English is probably from confusion with suffix -ed (see lawn (1)). Sense of "look at closely, examine" first recorded 1540s. The (opposite) sense of "look over quickly, skim" is first attested 1926. The noun is recorded from 1706. Scanner as a type of mechanical device is recorded from 1927.