seisin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English seisine, also sesin,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French seisine,^[3][5][6][7] also saisine,^[2][8][9] and Anglo-Norman sesine,^[10][7] from seisir (“to seize”), also saisir,^[3][2][5] the source of seize.^[3][5] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1155, for seizure and for legal possession.^[11] The OED compares Old Occitan sazina, the source of Italian sagina.^[9] The French verb is from Late Latin sacīre, which is generally held to be from Germanic, though the exact source is uncertain.^[5][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Possession, chiefly in phrases such as to have seisin and to take seisin: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle.^[9] Etymonline has about 1300, as saisine,^[5] Dictionary.com 1250–1300,^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline holds that the word first meant the completion of the ceremony of feudal investiture, by which the tenant was admitted to his freehold, and that the wider "ownership, possession" came in the mid-14th century;^[5] the OED and the Shorter Oxford instead put general possession first and the legal sense of possession as freehold later.^[9][7] Primer seisin is recorded from 1459.^[9] From 1523 give seisin and take seisin could refer to the symbolic acts called livery of seisin.^[9][2] Scots law used the word for the giving of possession by the delivery of symbols, and for the document that recorded it, from 1498.^[9] Johnson (1755), under seizin, distinguished seisin in fact, an actual taking of possession, from seisin in law, something the law counts as possession, such as an enrolment.^[13] Weekley points to the symbolic act in Puck of Pook's Hill and to the legal phrase to be seized of.^[14] A verb formed from the noun was used from about 1400 to the 16th century.^[9][7]

Timeline

• 1297 – possession, chiefly in have seisin and take seisin.^[9]
• mid-14th century – ownership, possession of land under title.^[5]
• before 1400 – verb, to give seisin of property (obsolete).^[9]
• 1459 – primer seisin.^[9]
• 1498 – in Scots law, the giving of possession by the delivery of symbols.^[9]
• 1523 – livery of seisin, in Fitzherbert.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) Possession of a freehold estate in land.^{[2][15][9][16]}
2. (historical) The completion of feudal investiture, by which a tenant was admitted to a freehold.^[16][2]
3. (Scots law) The giving of possession of feudal property by the delivery of symbols, or the document recording it.^[9][7]
4. (Louisiana law) The right of universal successors to possess a dead person's estate immediately.^[16]

Verb

1. (obsolete, c. 1550–1587) To seize upon.^[9][7]

Related words

• seize
• disseisin
• sasine

Usage notes

The spelling seizin is the usual one in the United States, according to Collins.^[15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
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. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West