sceller

Forms

sceller^[1] Old French seieler (1080), seeler (about 1131), seler (1229); sceller from the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French seieler, inherited from Vulgar Latin *sigellāre, an alteration of Late Latin sigillō (“to seal”), from classical sigillum (“seal, impression”).^{[4][2][5][1][6]} In Late Latin the verb meant “to turn to stone, make into a statue” (Prudentius), “to imprint artistically” (Fulgentius) and, in the glosses, “to seal a document”.^[4] The Petit Robert instead derives the verb from scel, the old form of sceau.^[7]

Cognate with Italian suggellare, Old Occitan selar, Catalan segellar, Spanish sellar and Portuguese selar.^[5][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), ses brefs seieler “to seal his letters”, meaning to mark a document with a seal to close or validate it.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

By analogy the verb came to mean “to close tightly” (Philippe de Thaon, 1121–1134, of a tombstone), then “to make solid” (about 1160) and “to fix firmly with lead or mortar” (1180–1190): Li quarrel en estoient tout a plonc seelé “its stones were all sealed with lead”.^[4][2] The technical uses sceller une glace (1765) and sceller des pavés (1870) come from this sense.^[2]

From the first sense came “to put the official seals on” (1328, of a door) and “to mark goods with a stamp of origin” (1384).^[4][2] Sceller a promise “to confirm it by a sealed deed” (about 1360) has gone, but survives in the figurative “to confirm solemnly” (late 15th century, Jean Molinet).^[2][4] The noun scellé “seal placed by authority” is recorded in 1690 and the plural scellés in the Code civil of 1804.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Seieler appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[4]
• 1121–1134 – Philippe de Thaon uses it for “to close” a tomb.^[4]
• 1180–1190 – It means “to fix with lead”, in the Roman d'Alexandre.^[4]
• 1229 – The spelling sceler is found in a charter.^[4]
• 1328 – It means “to put seals on” a door.^[4][2]
• Late 15th century – Molinet uses it for “to confirm solemnly”.^[4]
• 1690 – Furetière records le scellé.^[4]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie has sceller une glace “to set a mirror in plaster”.^[4][2]
• 1804 – The plural scellés appears in the Code civil.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To seal: to mark (a document) with a seal to authenticate or close it.^[7][9][10]
2. To close (a container or premises) with a seal, to put the official seals on.^[7][4]
3. (figurative) To confirm solemnly or for good: sceller une alliance.^[7][10]
4. To close hermetically: sceller une fenêtre.^[7][10]
5. To fix (an iron or wooden piece) into a wall or stone with plaster, cement or lead.^[7][8][10]
6. (Quebec) To mortar.^[1]

Word family

• scellé
• scellement
• desceller
• scellage
• scelleur

Related words

• sceau
• sigiller
• Latin sigillum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)