seal

English has two main words spelled seal: the stamp that authenticates a document, from Latin, and the marine mammal, a native word.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /siːl/^[3]

seal¹ stamp, fastening

Etymology

The stamp is Middle English seil, seel, borrowed from Anglo-Norman seal, borrowed from Old French seel (modern French sceau),^[2][4][5] from Vulgar Latin *sigellum,^[2][5] from Latin sigillum (“small picture, engraved figure, seal”), a diminutive of signum (“mark, token, sign”) (see sign).^[2][5][4][6] The Latin word was also borrowed into Gothic, German Siegel and Dutch zegel, and an earlier borrowing into Old English is insegel.^[2][5] The verb is from the noun or from Old French seeler.^[5][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Figuratively, something that joins two things: probably about 1200;^[2] an official seal, an authenticating mark, from 1258.^[2][8] Etymonline has the design stamped on wax from about 1200.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The engraved device used to make the impression, technically a matrix, is by about 1300.^[5] Further senses come from a seal marking and closing a document to keep it secret (about 1300),^[5] and an identifying mark, especially one confirming goods or measures as standard, is from the mid-14th century.^[5] The verb meant to fasten with a seal or to join together from about 1200,^[5] and to conclude or ratify from the late 15th century.^[5] To close a jar or container with wax, lead or cement is from the 1660s,^[5] and something that stops a gas or liquid from escaping from 1853.^[5] To seal one's lips is by 1782 and to seal one's fate from 1799.^[5] Put the seal on and set one's seal to come from the stamping of documents, and seal off from seals showing that something has not been opened.^[6] Sealing wax is attested from about 1300.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – something that joins; the verb.^[2][5]
• 1258 – an official seal.^[2][8]
• c. 1300 – sealing wax; a seal keeping secrecy.^[5]
• late 15th century – to ratify.^[5]
• 1660s – to close a container.^[5]
• 1853 – a seal against leaks.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A device or signet with a design that is stamped into wax or lead, or the impression or emblem itself, used to authenticate a document.
2. Something that closes or fastens tightly, as against air or water.
3. A mark or sign of approval or guarantee: seal of approval.

Verb

1. To fix a seal to, so as to authenticate.
2. To close firmly or hermetically; to make fast.
3. To settle or decide finally: to seal a deal.

Word family

• sealant
• sealer
• sealing wax
• seal ring
• unseal
• privy seal

seal² marine mammal

Etymology

The animal is Middle English sele, inherited from Old English seolh (stem sēol-),^[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *selhaz,^[2][5] which is also the source of Middle Low German sēl, Middle Dutch seel, Old High German selah and Old Norse selr.^[2][4][5] Its further origin is unknown;^[4][5] Etymonline suggests a borrowing from Finnic, and Barnhart and MWU a possible link with Ancient Greek ἕλκειν (hélkein, “to drag”) or Old English sulh (“furrow”).^[5][2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English sēol-, before 899, in Alfred's translation of Orosius;^[2] the OED's first use is about 1000.^[8] In Middle English it is sele about 1300 in Havelok the Dane, and the compound selesmer, perhaps pieces of blubber, is from 1293.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Anglo-Saxon kenning seolhbæð, “seal's bath”, meant the sea.^[5] Kinds of seal, such as eared, elephant, fur and harp seals, are named from 1781,^[8] and seal short for sealskin from 1886.^[8] The colour seal brown is attested by 1875, and seal point, the dark markings of a Siamese cat, from 1934.^[5] The verb, to hunt seals, is from the late 18th century.^[9]

Timeline

• before 899 – Old English sēol-, in Alfred's Orosius.^[2]
• 1293 – selesmer.^[2]
• c. 1300 – sele, in Havelok.^[2]
• 1875 – seal brown.^[5]
• 1934 – seal point.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sleek aquatic carnivorous mammal with flippers, of the families Phocidae and Otariidae.
2. The fur of the fur seal; sealskin.

Verb

1. To hunt seals.

Word family

• sealer
• sealskin
• fur seal
• elephant seal

Related words

• sign
• signet
• sigil
• signature
• sallow

Usage notes

A third seal, a willow or sallow, is now dialect only, partly from Old Norse selja.^[9] SEAL, a member of a US Navy special-operations unit, is an abbreviation of sea, air, land.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins