'auncel' is recorded in Middle English (forms auncel, aunsel) and is considered an archaic/obsolete term in Modern English; its precise older origin is uncertain but it appears in medieval English sources.

'auncel' appears in Middle English as 'auncel' or 'aunsel' (attested in late medieval texts) and was used through the early modern period; the term gradually fell out of use and is now obsolete in contemporary English.

Initially it meant 'a particular kind of weighing balance' and that basic sense has been retained in historical references, but the word itself has become archaic and is no longer used in ordinary modern speech.