Etymology

sail

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Today it means: A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes. Full definition →

Middle English saile ← Old English seġl ← Proto-West Germanic *segl
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sail · noun1

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*seglą
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*segl
  3. Old English · inherited fromseġl
  4. Middle English · inherited fromsaile
  5. English todaysail

From Middle English saile, sayle, seil, seyl, from Old English seġl, from Proto-West Germanic *segl, from Proto-Germanic *seglą. Cognate with West Frisian seil, Low German Segel, Dutch zeil, German Segel, Danish sejl, Swedish segel.

sail · verb2

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*siglijan
  2. Old English · inherited fromseġlan
  3. Middle English · inherited fromsailen
  4. English todaysail

From Middle English sailen, saylen, seilen, seilien, from Old English seġlan, siġlan (“to sail”), from Proto-West Germanic *siglijan, from *siglijaną. Cognate with West Frisian sile, Low German seilen, Dutch zeilen, German segeln, Danish sejle, Swedish segla, Icelandic sigla.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishsailen all →

besail

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.