scan·la·tion (スキャンレーション) n.

1. The unofficial act or process of scanning, translating, and editing comics (usually Japanese manga) that modifies the work into the distributor's language.

2. A translated comic that has been unofficially modified from a foreign work.

Alternative forms: scanslation, fanscan.


Origin:

The word scanlation comes from scan and translation.

However, the practice was not always called scanlation. Before 1999, the process was commonly referred to as fanscan, a spin-off of fansub.

In 2000, after the emergence of organized groups like Mangascans and MangaScreener, the word scanlation began to appear. Some thought scanlation sounded dumb, since people translate and not tranlate. Thus, many used the term scanslation instead.

As time went by, scanlation slowly became the norm; however, even in 2009, many people still uses the term scanslation.