Scroll

How to spell scroll

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce scroll

What does scroll mean?

1. verbTo move text or images smoothly up, down, or across a screen.
2. nounA roll of parchment or paper, especially one bearing writing.

Scroll in a sentence

• noun

  The museum displayed an ancient scroll behind protective glass.

• verb

  You can scroll through the long report using the mouse wheel.

• noun

  The graduate untied the ribbon and unrolled the ceremonial scroll.

• verb

  She had to scroll down the page to reach the payment details.

Where does scroll come from?

Language of origin: French

Scroll comes from Middle English scrowle, an altered form of the earlier scrowe, which meant a roll of parchment. That word was borrowed from Old French escroue, meaning a scrap or strip of parchment, a term that itself traces back to a Germanic source related to the idea of a shred or cut piece. The familiar -oll spelling, and the doubled letters, arose under the influence of the native English word roll, since a scroll is by its nature something rolled up. For centuries the meaning stayed close to the physical object: a rolled sheet of writing, often a sacred or ceremonial document. In the late twentieth century the word gained an entirely new life as a verb in computing, describing the way text or images move smoothly up, down, or across a screen, as if an endless sheet were being unrolled past a window.

How the word is built

• scroll (single root; Middle English scrowle, a strip of parchment that rolls up)