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eyesight

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Etymology and origin of the English word eyesight

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 1175 Ormulum
Ultimate origin
Middle English eie,sight

Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈaɪˌsaɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English eie-sight, also eiesight and early ehsihþe,[2][3] formed from Middle English eie (“eye”) + sight (“sight”).[3][4][5][6][7] Some Middle English forms seem to have the first element in the plural; the OED suggests that these may continue an unrecorded Old English phrase *ēagena sihð, with the genitive plural ēagena (“of the eyes”), and it quotes the Old English phrase ēagena gesihð.[4] The MED compares Old English gesiht (“vision, sight”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The power of seeing, sight: about 1175, in the Ormulum, which also uses it figuratively of the sight of the heart or mind.[4][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1200,[5] Dictionary.com to 1150–1200,[7] and Merriam-Webster to the 13th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

From about 1225 the word also meant the range of vision, in phrases such as out of my eyesight and within eyesight, the sense of eyeshot.[4][3] From about 1335 it was used for the act of seeing or looking, observation, and in early use for a single look; this survives only in by eyesight.[4][6] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "sight of the eye", quoting the Bible's "according to my cleanness in his eyesight".[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1175 – the power of seeing; also figuratively, of the mind or heart.[4][2]
  • c. 1225 – range of vision, in phrases such as out of eyesight.[4]
  • c. 1335 – the act of seeing or looking, observation.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The ability to see; vision: Her eyesight grew weaker in old age.[3][6][4]
  2. (archaic) The act of seeing or looking; observation.[3][6][4]
  3. (archaic) The range of one's vision; eyeshot.[3][4]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
Cite this entry

“Eyesight.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/eyesight. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·