Etymologically
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seizure

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 22:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈsizjʊɚ/[1]
  • UK: /ˈsiː.ʒə(ɹ)/[1]
  • US: /ˈsi.ʒɚ/[1]

Etymology

It was formed from English seize + -ure,[2][3][4][5] in Middle English seisure, from seisen (“to seize”).[6] The verb comes borrowed from Old French seisir (“to take possession of; to put in possession”),[3] from saciō (“to take into one's possession”) (8th century), whose source is usually thought to be Germanic.[3] An earlier noun in this sense was the verbal noun seising, from the early 14th century.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of seizing, especially the forcible or legal taking of land or goods: 1482, in a Star Chamber case;[2] Etymonline puts it in the late 15th century,[3] and Dictionary.com in 1475–85.[5]

Semantic evolution

In the late 16th and 17th centuries the word also meant legal possession, like seisin,[2][4] and, in Shakespeare, a grasp or hold.[2] Johnson (1755) gave "the act of seizing", "the thing seized" and "the act of taking forcible possession".[7] The medical sense, a sudden attack of illness such as a stroke or an epileptic fit, is first recorded in 1779, in a letter of Samuel Johnson's;[2][3] it was also used for a sudden calamity.[2] In mechanics, from 1903, the word was used for the jamming of moving parts, the act of a machine seizing up.[2][4]

Timeline

  • 1482 – the act of seizing; confiscation.[2]
  • 1592 – legal possession (obsolete by the mid-17th century).[2]
  • before 1616 – a grasp or hold (obsolete).[2]
  • 1779 – a sudden attack of illness, a fit.[2][3]
  • 1903 – the seizing up of a machine.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The act of taking something by force or by legal authority: Police announced the seizure of two tonnes of cocaine.
  2. The taking of control of a place or of power, especially by force: the army's seizure of the capital.
  3. A sudden attack of illness, especially a convulsion caused by epilepsy, or a stroke.
  4. The jamming of a machine or of moving parts.

Word family

  • nonseizure
  • reseizure
  • absence seizure

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.