The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*līną“flax”
- Old English · inherited fromlīnsǣd“seed of flax”
- Middle English · inherited fromlinseed
- English todaylinseed
From Middle English linseed, lynseed, lynsede, from Old English līnsǣd (“seed of flax”), from līn (“flax”) (from Proto-Germanic *līną (“flax”)) + sǣd (“seed”). By surface analysis, lin + seed.
Words from the same roots
Proto-Germanic*līną all →
linelinen
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.