The c in cell says s, and that soft-c convention is a Romance import — Old English had no use for it, since its own c was either a k sound or the ch of church. Any English word with c pronounced s before e, i or y is a borrowing: cell, city, cycle, pencil. The word itself is Latin cella, "small room, store room, hut," related to celare, "to hide," from a root meaning "to cover, conceal."
It entered English in the early 1100s in a strictly monastic sense: a small subordinate monastery, then a monk's or hermit's room. The prison sense is only 1722. The biological meaning grew slowly out of the idea of compartments — used in the 1300s of imagined chambers in the brain, then in the 1600s of cavities in wood, fruit and honeycomb, and finally settling into the modern sense of the basic unit of living things by 1845. The battery sense followed the same compartment metaphor in 1828.
cell (n.) early 12c., "small monastery, subordinate monastery" (from Medieval Latin in this sense), later "small room for a monk or a nun in a monastic establishment; a hermit's dwelling" (c. 1300), from Latin cella "small room, store room, hut," related to Latin celare "to hide, conceal" (from PIE root *kel- (1) "to cover, conceal, save"). From "monastic room" the sense was extended to "prison room" (1722). The word was used in 14c., figuratively, of brain "compartments" as the abode of some faculty; it was used in biology by 17c. of various cavities (wood structure, segments of fruit, bee combs), gradually focusing to the modern sense of "basic structure of all living organisms" (which OED print edition dates to 1845). The electric battery sense is by 1828, based on the "compartments" in very early types. The meaning "small group of people working within a larger organization" is by 1925. Cell-body is from 1851, cell-division by 1846, cell-membrane from 1837 ( cellular membrane is by 1732), cell wall is attested from 1842. also from early 12c.
cell came in through Norman French, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| /s/ before e, i, or y | c — the soft-c convention is Romance, and Old English had no use for itcity, cell, pencil |
What gives it away on the page
| c said as /s/ before e, i, y | The soft-c convention is Romance; Old English had no use for it.city, cell, cycle, pencil |
Norman French in the spelling guide · guess another word's family