seing

Forms

seing m (plural seings)^[1] Old French sain, seign and saing.^[2][3] In the sense of a signature it was also written sing (1538) and seng (1395).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French seing, inherited from Latin signum (“mark, sign, seal”).^{[5][4][6][7][1]} It is a doublet of signe, borrowed from the same Latin word, and of tocsin.^[1][4]

Cognate with Italian segno, Spanish seña, Portuguese senha, Catalan senya and Occitan senh.^[7][8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Roman de Troie (about 1165) it is a mark, here a birthmark on the skin.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Old French used seing for several kinds of mark: a mark bounding a wood where nets were set (about 1170, spelled sain), a target (about 1270), a mark stamped with a tool (1283) and the tool itself (1296).^[4][2] Bloch and Wartburg add the sense “bell”, from Late Latin, the one kept in tocsin.^[7] From about 1170 it also meant a mark put at the foot of a document to certify it,^[5] and so a signature, the sense that held in the classical period and became the legal “signature that makes an act authentic” in 1373.^[4][9]

Today it survives in law in seing privé (1660), the signature of a deed not drawn up before a notary, as in acte sous seing privé,^[4][2][10] and in the compounds blanc-seing and contreseing.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Seing “mark” appears in the Roman de Troie.^[5]
• c. 1170–1180 – Guillaume de Saint-Pair uses it for a mark on a charter.^[5]
• 1283 – Beaumanoir uses it for a stamped mark.^[4][3]
• 1373 – The legal sense “authenticating signature” is recorded.^[4][9]
• 1642 – Oudin records accord sous seing privé.^[5]
• 1660 – Seing privé is recorded.^[4][2]
• 1671 – Blanc-seing is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A signature.^[10][1]
2. (law) Seing privé: the signature of the parties on a deed not drawn up by a notary, as in acte sous seing privé.^[10][11]

Word family

• blanc-seing
• contreseing
• sous-seing

Related words

• signe
• tocsin
• Latin signum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 605a
7. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7908
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)