seel

English

Etymology 1

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

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 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.
   • J. Reading

     Fond hopes, like seeled doves for want of better light, mount till they end their flight with falling.

2. (by extension) To blind.

Translations

To sew together the eyes of a young hawk

• Russian: завязывать (ru) (zavjazyvatʹ) глаза (ru) (glaza)

To blind — see blind

Etymology 4

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.
   • Samuel Pepys

     […] the ship seeled so much that I was not able to stand […]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Raleigh to this entry?)

Noun

seel (plural seels)

1. The rolling or agitation of a ship in a storm.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sandys to this entry?)

Anagrams

• eels
• else
• lees
• lese
• sele