sight

Pronunciation

• IPA: /saɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sight, inherited from Old English ġesiht, also sihþ and ġesihþ, “thing seen, vision, power of sight”,^[2][3][4] a West Germanic derivative^[4][5] of the stem of Old English sēon (“to see”), the source of see,^[3][2] with the noun suffix -th, later -t.^[2] It is cognate with Middle Dutch sicht, Dutch zicht and German Sicht and Gesicht “sight, face, appearance”.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something seen, especially something remarkable, and a vision: about 950 in the OED and Barnhart, in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Perception by the eyes is from the early 13th century,^[2] and a show or display, hence a great number or quantity, from 1390.^[6][2] Trench noted that this “great many” use, once neutral (Tyndale wrote of an innumerable sight of angels), had become vulgar by his time.^[7] The device on a gun for aiming is from the 1580s,^[2] and gave in one's sights and set one's sights on.^[8] The sights of a town, the things worth seeing, are from 1632.^[6] A sight for sore eyes is from 1738,^[2][6] and a shocking or ridiculous spectacle from 1694 in the OED.^[6] The verb first meant “to look at, inspect” (1556) and then “to get sight of” (about 1600).^[3][2]

Timeline

• c. 950 – a thing seen; a vision.^[6][3]
• early 13th century – the power of seeing.^[2]
• 1390 – a great number.^[6]
• 1556 – verb, to inspect.^[3]
• 1580s – a device for aiming.^[2]
• c. 1600 – verb, to catch sight of.^[2]
• 1632 – the sights.^[6]
• 1738 – sight for sore eyes.^[2]
• 1892 – sight unseen.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The ability to see; vision.
2. The act of seeing, or the range within which one can see: out of sight.
3. Something seen, especially something worth seeing; the sights are the interesting places of a town.
4. (informal) Something that looks unpleasant or ridiculous.
5. A device on a gun or instrument that helps to aim it.
6. (informal) A great deal: a sight better.

Verb

1. To catch sight of; to see.
2. To aim with or adjust the sights of a gun.

Word family

• sightable
• sighter
• backsight
• blindsight
• bombsight
• boresight
• sighthole
• sighthound

Related words

• see
• insight
• foresight
• hindsight

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 i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press