Etymology

seethe

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Today it means: Of a liquid or other substance, or a container holding it: to be boiled (vigorously); to become boiling hot. Full definition →

Middle English sethen ← Old English sēoþan ← Proto-West Germanic *seuþan
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*h₂sewt-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*seuþaną“to boil, seethe”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*seuþan
  4. Old English · inherited fromsēoþan“to boil, seethe; to cook; etc.”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromsethen
  6. English todayseethe

The verb is derived from Middle English sethen, seeth (“to boil, seethe; to cook; etc.”) [and other forms], from Old English sēoþan (“to boil, seethe; to cook; etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *seuþan, from Proto-Germanic *seuþaną (“to boil, seethe”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂sewt-, *h₂sew-, *h₂sut- (“to move about, roil, seethe”). The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates * Danish syde (“to seethe, boil”) * Dutch zieden (“to boil, seethe”) * German sieden (“to boil, seethe”) * Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌸𐍃 (sauþs, “burnt offering, sacrifice”) * Icelandic sjóða (“to boil, seethe”) * Low German seden (“to seethe”) * Norwegian Bokmål syde (“to boil, seethe”) * Norwegian Nynorsk sjoda, syda (“to boil, seethe”) * Scots seth, seith (“to seethe”) * Swedish sjuda (“to boil, seethe”) * West Frisian siede (“to boil”)

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*seuþaną all →

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.