singe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sengen,^[2][3][4][5] at first also zengen,^[6] inherited from Old English sengan, also sæncgan and sencgan,^[3][7][8][2] which occurred chiefly in the form besengan,^[9][8] inherited from Proto-Germanic *sangjanan.^[3][6] Hoad reconstructs Proto-West Germanic *saŋgjan, and the Oxford Dictionary of English also calls the word West Germanic.^[10][11] It is cognate with Old Frisian senga, Old Saxon bisengian, Old High German bisengan, Middle High German sengen, German sengen and Dutch zengen,^{[7][10][6][5]} and is related to Icelandic sangr (“singed”) and sengja (“singed taste”),^[7][6][8] to Dutch sengel (“spark”) and Middle High German senge (“dryness”),^[10][12][5] and perhaps, outside Germanic, to a Slavic verb meaning "to dry", from Proto-Indo-European *senk-.^[6][5] The stem Proto-Germanic *sang- has been linked to sing: the OED says it may refer to the sound of violent singeing,^[7] and Weekley took the verb as a causative of Old English singan, to make hiss.^[13] Klein rejected the connection.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To burn lightly, burn the edges of hair or wings: about 1000,^[6] and in the Old English laws a swineherd is told to singe (sæncge) his slaughter-pig after sticking it.^[8][7] The supplement to Bosworth-Toller also records it figuratively, for afflicting someone grievously, in a psalter.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The earliest uses are of someone deliberately burning off bristles or hair; from 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, fire or flame is itself the subject, as it "zengþ and bernþ" the white robe of chastity.^[7][2] Chaucer has Seynd bacoun, singed or broiled bacon, and "Who so wolde senge a cattes skyn".^[2] Middle and early modern English could also use it for burning up altogether, as in the Wars of Alexander: "We sall his cite & him-selfe synge in-to poudire",^[2][7] and for cauterizing, up to 1627, but this stronger use died out.^[7] The modern sense of slight damage remained, and Johnson (1755) gives "to scorch; to burn slightly", quoting Shakespeare's beard "sing'd off with brands of fire".^[14] From 1728 cloth-makers singed fabric to remove loose fibres.^[7] Figurative use, for a person hurt by an unlucky venture, is recorded by Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[15] In Scots the past forms could be sang and sung, and porridge about to burn was on the singe.^[16] In the US, singed cat, from 1827, was someone better than they looked.^[3][9]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – to burn lightly, burn the edges of something; to singe a carcass.^[6][7]
• 1340 – of fire or flame, to burn slightly.^[7][6][2]
• before 1450 – to burn up, consume with fire; to cauterize (obsolete after 1627).^[7][17]
• 1600 – of intense cold, to burn (obsolete after 1601).^[7][17]
• before 1616 – to take off by burning, in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.^[7]
• 1658 – noun, a slight surface burn, in Browne's Urne-Buriall.^[7][15][6]
• 1728 – to pass fabric over a hot plate or through a flame to remove fibres.^[7][17]
• 1827 – singed cat, a person better than they look.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To burn lightly on the surface; to scorch: The campfire singed the hem of his coat.^[12][15][7]
2. To burn the ends off hair.^[12][9]
3. To pass a carcass over a flame to take off bristles or down.^[12][15][9]
4. To pass yarn or cloth over a flame or hot rollers to remove loose fibres.^[15][7][9]
5. To take off by burning, with off.^[7][9]
6. Figuratively, to cause someone unexpected trouble or embarrassment.^[15]

Noun

1. A slight burn on a surface; a scorch.^[12][15][7]

Word family

• singeingly
• unsinged

Related words

• sing
• swinge

Usage notes

The present participle is spelled singeing,^[15][9] and Dictionary.com lists singeing and singing as forms to keep apart.^[18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
18. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House