Etymologically
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sell

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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)