Etymologically
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sehen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈzeː.ən/, /ˈseː.hɛn/[1]
  • Germany: /zeːn/[1]
  • Austria: /ˈseː.ɛn/, /seːn/[1]

Forms

sehen (class 5 strong, third-person singular present sieht, past tense sah, past participle gesehen, past subjunctive sähe, auxiliary haben)[1] The old imperative sich survives in dialects; biblical and elevated German keeps siehe.[2] The past sahe is still familiar from the Bible.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German sëhen, inherited from Old High German sehan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sehwan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *sehwaną.[4][1] The same word is Old Saxon sehan, Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌹𐍈𐌰𐌽 (saiƕan), Old Norse sjá, Old English sēon and Old Frisian siā; Dutch zien, English see, Swedish se and Yiddish זען (zen) continue it.[4][5][1] Nouns of the same family are gisiuni (“sight, appearance”) and Old Saxon siun (“eye”).[5]

Outside Germanic the closest matches in meaning are Old Irish rosc (“eye”), Albanian shoh (“to see”) and Hittite šakuwa (“eyes”).[4][5] Most sources connect it with the root of Latin sequor (“to follow”) and Ancient Greek ἕπεσθαι (hépesthai, “to follow”), so that seeing was “following with the eyes”;[5][6][2][3] Pfeifer, Duden and Paul think of an old hunting word for a hound tracking its quarry, as in Latvian sekt (“to follow, scent”).[5][6][2][3] Kluge finds the link with Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”) hard to judge, and asks whether the likeness to Proto-Indo-European *okʷ- (“to see”) (the root of oculus) and to the root of schauen is chance.[4] Pfeifer also connects sagen with the same root, through a sense “to show, announce”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sehan is recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses, then in the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and other texts.[7][8] Its senses were already broad: “to see, look at, catch sight of, notice”, but also “to take care of, heed, have regard to”.[7][9]

Semantic evolution

Old High German gisiuni “sight” is among the early derivatives (8th century), and the abstract nouns Sicht and Gesicht belong to the verb.[5][4] Luther used Seher for “prophet”, but the word became established only in the 18th century;[6][10][5] Middle High German already had sternseher “astronomer”.[6][10][5] Sehkraft “eyesight” dates from the early 18th century, after an older Sehenskraft, and sehenswürdig “worth seeing” from the 18th century, with Sehenswürdigkeit “sight, attraction” from the early 19th.[5]

Many prefixed verbs developed meanings of their own: ansehen gave Ansehen “appearance”, and in the 16th century also “esteem”;[5] absehen meant “to learn by watching” (16th century), “to aim at” (17th century) and “to refrain from” (18th century); nachsehen took the sense “to forgive” in the 16th century.[5]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German sehan in glosses.[4][7]
  • 16th century – Luther uses Seher for “prophet”;[6][5] Ansehen “esteem”.[6][5]
  • Early 18th century – Sehkraft “eyesight”.[5]
  • 18th century – Seher becomes established;[6][5] sehenswürdig “worth seeing”.[6][5]
  • Early 19th century – Sehenswürdigkeit “sight, attraction”.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To see, to have sight: er kann wieder sehen “he can see again”.[11][1]
  2. To look in a direction: auf die Uhr sehen “to look at the clock”.[11][1]
  3. To direct one's attention or hopes to: hoffnungsvoll in die Zukunft sehen “to look hopefully to the future”.[11]
  4. To stick out so as to be visible: das Boot sah nur ein Stück aus dem Wasser “the boat showed only a little above the water”.[11]
  5. To face: die Fenster sehen auf den Garten “the windows look onto the garden”.[11]
  6. To catch sight of, perceive, notice.[11][1]
  7. To realize, find out.[1]
  8. To meet someone.[1]
  9. With nach: to check on, look after.[1][2]

Word family

  • absehen
  • ansehen
  • aufsehen
  • aussehen
  • einsehen
  • fernsehen
  • hellsehen
  • nachsehen
  • Seher
  • Sehkraft
  • versehen
  • vorsehen
  • besehen
  • durchsehen
  • entgegensehen
  • Sicht
  • Gesicht

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  3. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 129
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 839
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 274
  10. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  11. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag