Where does “seal” come from?
Seal comes from Middle English sele, from Old English seolh, from Latin sigillum meaning "small mark or image," from Latin signum meaning "sign or mark," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ser- meaning "to bind or connect."
seal (English): A pinniped (Pinnipedia), particularly an earless seal (true seal) or eared seal
Definitions
- A pinniped (Pinnipedia), particularly an earless seal (true seal) or eared seal
Ancestry of “seal”, step by step
seal traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English sel
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | sel | Good fortune, prosperity, luck |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | sëel | — |
| 3 | Latin | sigillum | figurine, statuette; seal |
| 4 | Latin | -lus | Alternative form of -ulus; diminutive suffix |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | -elos | Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |