掌管公文的官署
這一支就是核心畫面本身，也是這個字最早指的東西：政府裡繕寫、用印、保存公文的那個單位。
noun · C1
A government office where official papers are drawn up, sealed, collected and kept. Used especially in British English.
文書檔案官署
核心畫面
You can picture chancery as one room: the room where an institution keeps its official paper. Clerks at desks, documents being copied out, a seal pressed into wax, shelves of records that nobody throws away. That room is the whole word. When the person who ran the room began hearing people's complaints as well, the room grew into a court. When other kinds of institution needed the same room, the name went with it — an embassy has one, a diocese has one. Whatever the building, the picture underneath is the same: this is where the official papers are made, sealed and kept.
可以想成 chancery 就是一個房間：一個機構存放正式文件的那個房間。書記坐在桌前抄寫文件，印章壓進蠟裡，一排排…更多收起
可以想成 chancery 就是一個房間：一個機構存放正式文件的那個房間。書記坐在桌前抄寫文件，印章壓進蠟裡，一排排檔案沒有人丟掉。這個房間就是整個字。當管這個房間的人也開始受理人們的陳情，房間就長成了一個法院。當其他機構也需要同樣一個房間，這個名字就跟著搬過去——大使館有一個，教區也有一個。不管是哪一棟樓，底下的畫面都一樣：正式文件在這裡製作、用印、保存。From the word’s history
Chancery comes from Middle English chancerie, a shortened form of chancellerie — the chancellery, the chancellor's office. So the office is not a later application of the word; the office is what the word originally named.
chancery 來自中古英文 chancerie，是 chancellerie（chancellery，大臣的辦公處）的縮短形。所以「辦公室」不是後來才有的引申，它本來就是這個字在講的東西。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:919608078): From Middle English chancerie, a reduced form of chancellerie. See chancellery.
Three branches
從那間辦公室長成的法院
可以這樣看：人們把陳情書送到那間管公文的辦公室，主事者一件一件處理，久了那裡就變成一個專門判斷「怎樣才公平」的法庭。這是概念上的連線，不是在斷定歷史的細節。
noun · C1
The part of a court system that deals with equity — cases where a judge is asked to do what is fair, such as ordering someone to keep a promise or to stop doing something, rather than only awarding money.
衡平法庭
機構的正式辦公處
同一個房間，換一個機構。大使館和教區都需要一個處理正式文件、保存紀錄的辦公處，於是這個名字就跟著搬了過去。
noun · C1
The building, or set of offices, where the staff of an embassy or other foreign mission do their daily work.
使館辦公處