seel

See also: Seel, se·el, and séel

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /siːl/
• Rhymes: -iːl
• Homophone: seal

Etymology 1

From Middle English sel, sele, from Old English *sǣle (“good, fortunate, happy”) (attested in Old English unsǣle (“evil, wicked”)), from Proto-Germanic *sēliz (“good, happy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *sēl- (“to calm, quiet, be favourable”). Cognate with Danish sæl (“blissful”), Dutch zalig (“blissful”), Gothic 𐍃𐌴𐌻𐍃 (sēls, “good, kind, useful”), Icelandic sæll (“blissful”), Latin sōlor (“to comfort, console”), Swedish säll (“blissful”).

Adjective

seel (comparative more seel, superlative most seel)

1. (obsolete) Good; fortunate; opportune; happy.

Etymology 2

From Middle English sele, sel, from Old English sǣl (“time, occasion, a fit time, season, opportunity, the definite time at which an event should take place, time as in bad or good times, circumstances, condition, position, happiness, joy, good fortune, good time, prosperity”), from Proto-Germanic *sēliz (“luck, joy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *sēl- (“to calm, quiet, be favourable”). Cognate with Icelandic sæla (“bliss”), Dutch zalig (“blissful, blessed”). More at silly.

Alternative forms

• seal

Noun

seel (plural seels)

1. (UK, dialectal) Good fortune; happiness; bliss.
2. (UK, dialectal) Opportunity; time; season.

   the seel of the day

Derived terms

• barley-seel
• hay-seel

Etymology 3

From Middle English silen, from Old French siller, ciller (“to sew up the eyelids of, hoodwink, wink”), from cil (“eyelid”), from Latin cilium (“eyelid, eyelash”).

Verb

seel (third-person singular simple present seels, present participle seeling, simple past and past participle seeled)

1. (falconry) To sew together the eyes of a young hawk.
   • 1651, William Davenant, Gondibert:

     Hey who does blindly soar at Rhodalind […]
     Mounts, like seel'd doves, still higher […]

2. (by extension) To blind.

Translations

To sew together the eyes of a young hawk

French: ciller (fr) Russian: завя́зывать (ru) (zavjázyvatʹ) глаза́ (ru) (glazá)

To blind — see blind

Etymology 4

Ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *sīgan (“to drop”). Compare Low German sielen (“to lead off water”), French siller (“to run ahead, to make headway”), and English sile (transitive verb).

Verb

seel (third-person singular simple present seels, present participle seeling, simple past and past participle seeled)

1. (intransitive, obsolete, of a ship) To roll on the waves in a storm.
   • c. 1611, Walter Raleigh, Observations on the Navy and Sea Service:

     when a Ship seels or rowls in foul Weather

Noun

seel (plural seels)

1. (obsolete) The rolling or agitation of a ship in a storm.
   • 1636, G[eorge] S[andys], “(please specify the page)”, in A Paraphrase upon the Psalmes of David. And upon the Hymnes Dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments, London: [Andrew Hebb […]], →OCLC:

     The ship hulls as the billows flow; / And all aboard at ev'ry seel, / Like drunkards, on the hatches reel.

References

• “seel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• slee, Slee, lese, lees, EELS, Lees, eels, Else, else, sele, ELEs, l'ees

Ingrian

Spatial inflection of seel

→○	sublative	sinne
○	superessive	seel
○→	delative	seelt

Etymology

Superessive of se (“it”). Cognates include Finnish siellä and Estonian seal.

Pronunciation

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈseːlːæ/, [ˈs̠eːlʲː]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈseːl/, [ˈʃe̝ːl]
• Rhymes: -eːlː, -eːl
• Hyphenation: seel

Adverb

seel

1. (of location) there
   • 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 29:

     A seel ono repo.

     And there is a fox.

References

• V. I. Junus (1936) Iƶoran Keelen Grammatikka‎, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 133
• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 521
• Olga I. Konkova, Nikita A. Dyachkov (2014) Inkeroin Keel: Пособие по Ижорскому Языку‎, →ISBN, page 49

Old French

Alternative forms

• cel, saiel, seal, sel, sele

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin sigillum.

Noun

seel oblique singular, m (oblique plural seeaus or seeax or seiaus or seiax or seels, nominative singular seeaus or seeax or seiaus or seiax or seels, nominative plural seel)

1. seal (means of authentication for a letter, etc.)

Descendants

• Middle French: sceau
  • French: sceau
    • → Norman: sceau
• → Middle English: sel, sele, selle, cel, seal, seale, sealle, seil
  • English: seal
    • → Punjabi: ਸੀਲ (sīl)
    • → Sotho: sili
    • → Swahili: sili
  • Scots: seal

Etymology 2

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *sitellus.

Noun

seel oblique singular, m (oblique plural seeaus or seeax or seiaus or seiax or seels, nominative singular seeaus or seeax or seiaus or seiax or seels, nominative plural seel)

1. pail, bucket

Descendants

• French: seau

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (seel, supplement)
• seel on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

Votic

Pronunciation

• (Luutsa, Liivtšülä) IPA^(key): /ˈseːl/, [ˈseːl]
• Rhymes: -eːl
• Hyphenation: seel

Adverb

seel

1. Alternative form of siäl

References

• Hallap, V., Adler, E., Grünberg, S., Leppik, M. (2012) “seel”, in Vadja keele sõnaraamat [A dictionary of the Votic language], 2nd edition, Tallinn