German Low German

Noun

Seel f (plural Selen)

1. soul

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Old High German seil. Cognate with German Seil, Old English sāl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zeːl/
  • Rhymes: -eːl

Noun

Seel n ‎(plural Seeler)

1. rope, cord

English

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. (Britain, dialectal) Good fortune; happiness; bliss.
2. (Britain, 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

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

Old French

Alternative forms

• cel
• saiel
• seal
• sel
• sele

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *segellum, from Latin sigillum.

Noun

seel m ‎(oblique plural seeaus or seeax or seiaus or seiax or seels, nominative singular seeaus or seeax or seiaus or seiax or seels, nominative plural seel)

1. seal (means of authentication for a letter, etc.)

Descendants

• English: seal (borrowed)
• French: sceau

References

• (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (seel, supplement)
• seel on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub