linseed

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English linsed,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English līnsǣd (“flaxseed”),^[2][5][3] formed from Old English līn (“flax”) + sǣd (“seed”).^[2][5][6][7] The first element is borrowed from Latin līnum (“flax”),^[2][8] and is also the base of linen;^[7] the second is from Proto-Germanic *sēdą (“seed”),^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *sē- (“to sow”).^[7] The OED compares Middle High German līnsāt and Dutch lijnzaad.^[9][10] The Scottish form lint-seed, used of seed for sowing, is strictly a separate formation from lint.^[9] Middle English spellings such as leniseid may reflect Latin līnī, the genitive of that noun.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seed of flax, in Old English: Bosworth-Toller cites it from a Latin–Old English glossary, where it glosses a Latin phrase for flaxseed, and also from the medical Leechdoms,^[12] which is also the OED's first record.^[9] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 1000 and the Middle English form to about 1150.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old English remedies use it, as in a recipe for a salve for a broken limb,^[12] and another Old English text speaks of sowing it in spring.^[12] Middle English records it in medicine as meal, powder, a mucilage and an oil,^[11] and Trevisa remarks that it nourishes little and is hard to digest.^[11] Johnson (1755) still called it much used in medicine.^[13] Etymonline notes that its later use was mainly as a source of linseed oil for paint, ink and varnish,^[7] and the Shorter Oxford also records linseed cake as cattle food.^[14] The word was occasionally used for the flax plant itself.^[9][14]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English līnsǣd, flaxseed.^[3]
• c. 1150 – Middle English form linsed.^[3]
• before 1325 – lynsede, glossing a French word for what is sown, in a glossed Bibbesworth manuscript.^[11]
• 1391 – lynesede among supplies in an expedition's accounts.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The seed of flax, used as a source of oil, as cattle feed and formerly in medicine; flaxseed.^{[15][5][14][7]}
2. (rare) The flax plant.^[5][14][9]

Word family

• linseed oil

Related words

• linen
• line
• seed
• lint

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e 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)
12. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins