seoir

Forms

seoir (defective)^[1] Old French seder (about 980), sedeir (about 1050) and seeir or seir (about 1155), before seoir (about 1175).^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also had seer, seier, seir and sier.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French seoir, inherited from Latin sedeō (“to sit, to sit in office, to stay, to be fixed”).^[5][6][2][7] The Old French form went from seder through sedeir and seeir to the present form.^[2][3] In Late Latin the verb also meant to please or to suit, a sense that grew out of being fixed in the mind.^[5][8]

Cognate with Italian sedere, Old Occitan sezer and Catalan seure.^[9][10] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sed-,^[1] the root also behind Ancient Greek ἕδρα (hédra, “seat”) and English sit.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found, as seder, in the Passion du Christ of the late 10th century, meaning “to sit, to be seated”.^[5][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense “to be seated” was already felt as old in the 17th century: Richelet (1680) notes that it is used only in a few tenses and that s’asseoir is used instead.^[5][7] From Latin the verb also took the senses “to be situated” (1160) and “to stay, reside” (1175), both long gone, and “to suit, to become” (about 1150–1175), which survives in literary French, mostly in the impersonal il sied.^[2][5] Old and Middle French also used it for “to besiege” and for a date on which something falls.^[2]

In the sense “to sit in an assembly” (14th century) it lasted into the classical period and was then replaced by siéger.^[2] Its participles survive in the language of the courts: séant “sitting” and sis “situated”.^[7] The verb itself is now defective, used mainly in the third person.^[11][1]

Timeline

• c. 980 – Seder “to sit” appears in the Passion du Christ.^[5][3]
• c. 1050 – The form sedeir is used in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[3]
• c. 1150 – Seoir “to suit” is found in the Charroi de Nîmes.^[5]
• c. 1155 – Wace writes seeir.^[3][2]
• 1176–1181 – Chrétien de Troyes uses s’il vos siet “if it pleases you”.^[5]
• 14th century – It is used for sitting in an assembly.^[2]
• 1680 – Richelet notes that the verb is used in only a few tenses.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To suit, to become someone: cette couleur lui sied bien.^[11][12][13]
2. (literary, impersonal) To be fitting or proper: comme il sied.^[11][12]
3. (archaic) To sit, to be seated; also se seoir, to sit down.^[5][10][1]
4. (law) To sit (of a court), to be situated, mostly in the participles séant and sis.^[5][7][1]

Word family

• séance
• séant
• seyant
• messeoir
• surseoir
• sursis

Related words

• asseoir
• siéger
• Latin sedeō

Usage notes

The verb is defective: only il sied, ils siéent, il seyait, il siéra, il siérait and the participle seyant are in use.^[8][13] The adjective seyant “becoming” is a recent variant of séant, recorded since 1871.^[7]

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 i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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, 392b
7. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
13. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)