siege

Pronunciation

• IPA: /siːdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sege, borrowed from Old French sege (“seat, throne”) (modern French siège),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *sedicum (“seat”), from an unattested verb *sedicō (“to sit, settle”),^[2][4] from Latin sedeō (“to sit”) (see sit),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”).^[3] Hoad and the NODE take it from asegier (“to besiege”) (see besiege).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A seat, especially one used by a person of rank; a throne: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The military sense, an army settled before a town to take it, is probably from before 1300; the notion is of the army “sitting down” before the place.^[2][3] Trench notes that the word once also meant a seat, as in Wycliffe's “the sege of his majeste” and in Spenser.^[8] The old sense survives in Siege Perilous, the empty seat at King Arthur's Round Table (about 1230).^[7][3] Middle English also used siege for a privy (about 1400), and the 16th century for excrement.^[3] A group of herons is a siege from about 1452.^[7] The verb is probably from before 1300.^[2] On the Isle of Wight, Siege of Troy was a boys' game.^[9]

Timeline

• probably before 1200 – a seat, throne.^[2]
• c. 1230 – Siege Perilous.^[7]
• probably before 1300 – a military siege; to siege.^[2]
• c. 1400 – a privy.^[3]
• c. 1452 – a siege of herons.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The surrounding and blockading of a town or fortress by an army trying to capture it.
2. A persistent attempt to gain something.
3. A long, wearing period, as of illness.
4. (obsolete) A seat or throne.
5. lay siege to: to besiege.

Verb

1. To besiege or assail.

Word family

• siegeable
• besiege
• siege mentality
• Siege Perilous
• siege piece

Related words

• sit
• see
• sedentary

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 c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
9. ^ 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)