seon

seon¹ to see

Pronunciation

• /se͜oːn/^[1]

Forms

sēon (strong class 5; third-person singular present siehþ, past singular seah, past plural sāwon)^[1]

Etymology

The verb “to see” is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sehwan, from Proto-Germanic *sehwaną (“to see”).^[1][2] Its cognates are Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌹𐍈𐌰𐌽 (saíƕan), Old Norse sjá, Old Frisian siā, Old Saxon sehan and Old High German sehan.^[3][4][5]

Outside Germanic, Holthausen and de Vries compare Middle Irish ar-secha (“he should see us”).^[4][5] Wiktionary derives the verb from a thematic present of Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to see, notice”), perhaps the root of “to follow”.^[1] Köbler gives both roots with a query.^[3] De Vries notes that the sense “see, show” stands beside “say” (Old Norse segja), and that both have been traced to an older “scent, notice”.^[5]

In Old English the vowel was broken before /h/, giving *seohan, which became sēon.^[2][6] The past forms keep the old alternation of the consonant: seah, sāwon, sewen in West Saxon, while the Anglian dialects levelled the other consonant through the past.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The simple verb is first recorded in the Old English Orosius (Tollemache manuscript, s. x¹ or x²/⁴), describing the sea south of Sciringes heal: seo is bradre þonne ænig man ofer seon mæge “it is broader than any man can see across”.^[8][9] The prefixed ġesēon is found earlier, in the Vespasian Psalter gloss of the mid-ninth century: On marne ic ætstondu ðe & gesio “In the morning I will stand before you and see”.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give first seeing with the eyes, with an object.^[11] With on or tō the verb means “look at”, as in Beowulf.^[12] Clark Hall adds observing, perceiving and understanding, inspecting and visiting, and experiencing or suffering.^[13] In glosses it renders Latin “videre”, “aspicere” and “intueri”.^[3] The poets use it in formulas such as the riddle opening Ic seah wundorlice wiht “I saw a wondrous creature”.^[11]

It lived on as Middle English seen, now English see.^[14][15]

Timeline

• s. x¹ – ofer seon “see across” in the Old English Orosius.^[8][9]
• s. x² – Ic seah wundorlice wiht in a riddle of the Exeter Book.^[16][11]
• s. x ex. – sawon “saw” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I (Royal 7 C. xii).^[17][9]
• s. x/xi – seah and sēon in the Beowulf manuscript.^[18][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. to see with the eyes, to behold.^[11][3]
2. to look (with on, tō).^[12]
3. to perceive, understand, know.^[13]
4. to inspect, visit.^[13]
5. to experience, suffer.^[13]

Word family

• ġesēon
• āsēon
• besēon
• forsēon
• ofersēon
• onsēon
• ġeondsēon

Descendants

• Middle English seen (→ English see; Middle Scots se; Middle Scots see)^[1]

seon² to strain, filter

Pronunciation

• /se͜oːn/^[1]

Forms

sēon (strong class 1; third-person singular present sīehþ, past singular sāh, past plural sigon)^[1]

Etymology

The verb “to strain” is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sīhwan (“to strain, drip”), from Proto-Germanic *sīhwaną (“to filter”).^[1] Its relatives are Old High German sīhan (“to strain”) and Old Norse sía (“to strain”), according to Bosworth and Toller, and Old Frisian sīa (“to strain, drip”).^[19][20][21] Köbler and Wiktionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *seykʷ- (“to pour, strain, trickle”).^[22][1]

It is a strong verb of the first class, with the variant sīon.^[23][1] Unlike the verb “to see”, it keeps the voiced alternant /w/ of Verner's law in its participle.^[7] Bosworth and Toller give the past forms sāh, sigon and the participles sigen, seowen and siwen.^[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is a gloss in the Corpus Glossary (s. ix¹): Excolat siid, the Latin “excolat” “let him strain out” glossed by the third person singular present.^[24][9][19] In Bald's Leechbook (s. x med.) the imperative stands in a recipe for headache: seoh þurh hæwenne clað “strain through a grey-blue cloth”.^[25][9]

Semantic evolution

Used with an object it means “strain, filter”, as in the medical recipes; used without one it means that a sore runs, or that something oozes or trickles, as worms ooze out of boils in the Orosius and in the Leechdoms' remedies for running bile.^[19] It glosses Latin “excolare”.^[22]

It lived on as Middle English sien, from sēon, sīon and the related sīgan.^[14] Bosworth and Toller report that Halliwell gives sie as a word still used in Derbyshire.^[19]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – siid glossing Latin “excolat” in the Corpus Glossary.^[24][9]
• s. x med. – seoh þurh hæwenne clað in Bald's Leechbook.^[25][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) to strain, filter.^[19][26][22]
2. (intransitive) to run (of a sore), to ooze, trickle, drip.^[19][22]

Word family

• āsēon
• seohhe

Descendants

• Middle English sihen (→ Scots sye; English sie)^[1]