Etymology

seamy

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Today it means: Sordid, squalid or corrupt. Full definition →

English seam ← Middle English sem ← Old Norse saumr
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*syewH-
  2. Proto-Germanic*saumaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic*saum
  4. Old Englishsēam
  5. Old Norsesaumr
  6. Middle Englishsem
  7. Englishseam
  8. English todayseamy

From seam + -y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.