English
scanlation
From scan + translation.
A compound of scan + translation
Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan’
Proto-Italic *skandō
Latin scandō ‘to climb, rise, mount’
Middle English scanden ‘to scan verse’
Middle English scanne ‘to mark off verse to show metrical structure’
English scan
Latin trānsferō ‘to transfer, translate’
Latin trānslātiō ‘transfer; translation’
Anglo-Norman translacioun
Middle English translacioun ‘transfer, translation’
English translation
Today it means
noun The act or process of scanning and translating foreign-language comics (especially Japanese manga, Chinese manhua, or Korean manhwa) into another language, typically for free distribution over the Internet.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “scanlation”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / scanlation