英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

chance: chance: [13] Like the related case, chance originally meant ‘that which befalls (by accident, also a relative)’. It comes ultimately from Vulgar Latin *cadēre, a descendant of Latin cadere ‘fall’ (source of English cadence and cadenza). This passed into Old French as cheoir, whose noun derivatives included cheoite (source of English chute) and cheance, acquired by English via Anglo-Norman chaunce.
=> accident, cadence, case, chute
chancellor: chancellor: [11] Etymologically, a chancellor was an attendant or porter who stood at the cancellī, or ‘lattice-work bar’, of a court in Roman times – hence the Latin term cancellārius. Over the centuries the cancellārius’s status rose to court secretary, in due course with certain legal functions. The word came into English, via Anglo-Norman canceler or chanceler, in the time of Edward the Confessor, denoting the king’s official secretary, a post which developed into that of Lord Chancellor, head of the English judiciary.

The court over which he presides, Chancery, gets its name by alteration from Middle English chancellerie, which came from an Old French derivative of chancelier ‘chancellor’. The word’s ultimate source, Latin cancellī ‘cross-bars, lattice, grating’ (a diminutive form of cancer ‘lattice’), came to be applied to the part of a church or other building separated off by such a screen: hence, via Old French, English chancel ‘part of a church containing the altar and choir’ [14].

And a metaphorical application of the notion of a lattice or bars crossing each other has given English cancel [14], via Latin cancellāre and Old French canceller, which originally meant ‘cross something out’.
=> cancel, chancel
enhance: enhance: [14] To enhance something is literally to ‘make it higher’. The word comes via Anglo- Norman enhauncer from Old French enhaucer, a descendant of Vulgar Latin *inaltiāre ‘raise’. This was a verb formed from the Latin intensive prefix in- and the adjective altus ‘high’ (source of English altitude). This original literal sense persisted into English (‘It was a stone, the which was enhanced upright’, William Caxton, Charles the Great 1485), but had largely died out by the end of the 16th century, leaving the field clear for the metaphorical ‘augment’.
=> altitude
perchance: perchance: see perhaps
bechance (v.): 1520s, from be- + chance. Related: Bechanced; bechancing.
chance (v.): late 14c., "to come about, to happen," from chance (n.). Meaning "to risk" attested from 1859. Related: Chanced; chancing.
chance (n.): c. 1300, "something that takes place, what happens, an occurrence" (good or bad, but more often bad), from Old French cheance "accident, chance, fortune, luck, situation, the falling of dice" (12c., Modern French chance), from Vulgar Latin *cadentia "that which falls out," a term used in dice, from neuter plural of Latin cadens, present participle of cadere "to fall" (see case (n.1)).

In English frequently in plural, chances. The word's notions of "opportunity" and "randomness" are as old as the record of it in English and now all but crowd out the word's original notion of "mere occurrence." Main chance "thing of most importance" is from 1570s, bearing the older sense. The mathematical (and hence odds-making) sense is attested from 1778. To stand a chance (or not) is from 1796.

To take (one's) chances "accept what happens" (early 14c.) is from the old, neutral sense; to take a chance/take chances is originally (by 1814) "participate in a raffle or lottery or game;" extended sense of "take a risk" is by 1826.
chancel (n.): c. 1300, "part of the church around the altar," from Old French chancel, from Late Latin cancellus "lattice," from Latin cancelli (plural) "grating, bars" (see cancel); sense extended in Late Latin from the lattice-work that separated the choir from the nave in a church to the space itself.
chancellery (n.): see chancery.
chancellor (n.): early 12c., from Old French chancelier (12c.), from Late Latin cancellarius "keeper of the barrier, secretary, usher of a law court," so called because he worked behind a lattice (Latin cancellus) at a basilica or law court (see chancel). In the Roman Empire, a sort of court usher; the post gradually gained importance in the Western kingdoms. A variant form, canceler, existed in Old English, from Old North French, but was replaced by this central French form.
chancery (n.): late 14c., "court of the Lord Chancellor of England," contracted from chancellery (c. 1300), from Old French chancelerie (12c.), from Medieval Latin cancellaria (see chancellor).
enhance (v.): late 13c., anhaunsen "to raise, make higher," from Anglo-French enhauncer, probably from Old French enhaucier "make greater, make higher or louder; fatten, foster; raise in esteem," from Vulgar Latin *inaltiare, from Late Latin inaltare "raise, exalt," from altare "make high," from altus "high" (see old). Meaning "raise in station, wealth, or fame" attested in English from c. 1300. Related: Enhanced; enhancing.

The -h- in Old French supposedly is from influence of Frankish *hoh "high." The -n- perhaps is due to association with Provençal enansar, enanzar "promote, further," from enant "before, rather," from Latin in + ante "before."
enhancement (n.): 1570s, from enhance + -ment.
inhance (v.): obsolete form of enhance.
mischance (n.): c. 1300, from Old French mescheance "misfortune, mishap, accident; wickedness, malice," from Vulgar Latin *minuscadentiam; see mis- (2) + chance (n.). Now usually "bad luck;" formerly much stronger: "calamity, disaster."
mischance (v.): 1540s, from mis- (1) + chance (v.). Related: Mischanced; mischancing.
off-chance (n.): 1861, from off (adv.) + chance (n.).
perchance (adv.): mid-14c., parchaunce, from Old French par cheance, literally "by chance." With Latin per substituted c. 1400 for French cognate par.