sell

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sel/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sellen,^[2][3] inherited from Old English sellan (“to give, furnish, supply; deliver; sell”),^[4][3][2] from Proto-Germanic *saljanan (“to offer up, deliver”),^[4][3] the source also of Old Norse selja “to hand over, sell”, Old High German sellen “to deliver” and Gothic saljan “to offer a sacrifice”.^[4][3][5] Merriam-Webster explains it as a causative verb formed from a noun represented by Old English sala “sale”.^[6] It is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to take, grasp”),^[4][3] and related to sale.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English sellan, “to give”, is found about 725, in Beowulf;^[3] the Middle English form sellen is from probably before 1200.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The original meaning was to give or hand over something in response to a request.^[7] “To give up for money” had emerged by late Old English, but in Chaucer selle can still mean “to give”;^[4] the Old English word for selling was bebycgan, from bycgan “to buy”.^[4] “To betray for gain” is from about 1200,^[4] and the slang sense “to swindle” from the 1590s.^[4] To sell one's soul to the devil is from about 1570.^[4][7] The noun meant an act of betrayal in 1838, in Dickens' Oliver Twist,^[3] and a hoax by 1838^[4] or 1853.^[3] To sell like hot cakes is from 1839,^[4] the figurative sell down the river by 1927,^[4] the hard sell by 1952^[4][8] and the sell-by date from 1972.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English sellan, to give.^[3]
• late Old English – to give for money.^[4]
• c. 1200 – to betray for gain.^[4]
• c. 1570 – to sell one's soul.^[4]
• 1590s – to swindle.^[4]
• 1838 – noun, a betrayal; a hoax.^[3][4]
• 1839 – sell like hot cakes.^[4]
• 1952 – hard sell.^[4][8]
• 1972 – sell-by date.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To give something in exchange for money.
2. To offer goods for sale as a business.
3. To be bought in a certain amount or at a certain price: the book sold well.
4. To persuade someone to accept an idea: sold them on the plan.
5. To betray for money or reward.
6. (slang) To cheat or deceive.

Noun

1. The act or manner of selling: a hard sell.
2. (informal) A hoax or disappointment.

Word family

• sellable
• outsell
• oversell
• presell
• supersell
• undersell
• unsell
• hard-sell

Related words

• sale
• seller
• sellout
• resell
• upsell

Usage notes

A different, now archaic and dialect sell, “a seat; a saddle”, is from Old French selle, from Latin sella.^[9][8][10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)