- see
[see 词源字典] - see: English has two words see. The older is the verb, ‘perceive visually’ [OE]. Like its Germanic cousins, German sehen, Dutch zien, and Swedish and Danish se, it goes back to a prehistoric *sekhwan, which was descended from an Indo-European base *seq-. This may have been the same *seq- that produced Latin sequī ‘follow’ (source of English sequence, sue, etc), in which case see would denote etymologically ‘follow with the eyes’. See ‘diocese’ [13] originally signified ‘bishop’s throne’.
It came via Anglo-Norman se from Vulgar Latin *sedem ‘seat’, descendant of classical Latin sēdem, the accusative case of sēdes ‘seat’. This in turn went back to the Indo- European base *sed- ‘sit’, which also produced English sit.
=> sight; seat, sit[see etymology, see origin, 英语词源] - see (v.)
- Old English seon "to see, look, behold; observe, perceive, understand; experience, visit, inspect" (contracted class V strong verb; past tense seah, past participle sewen), from Proto-Germanic *sekhwan (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German sehan, Middle High German, German sehen, Old Frisian sia, Middle Dutch sien, Old Norse sja, Gothic saihwan), from PIE root *sekw- (2) "to see," which is probably identical with *sekw- (1) "to follow" (see sequel), a root which produced words for "say" in Greek and Latin, and also words for "follow" (such as Latin sequor), but "opinions differ in regard to the semantic starting-point and sequences" [Buck]. Thus see might originally mean "follow with the eyes."
Used in Middle English to mean "behold in the imagination or in a dream" (c. 1200), "to recognize the force of (a demonstration)," also c. 1200. Sense of "escort" (as in to see (someone) home) first recorded 1607 in Shakespeare. Meaning "to receive as a visitor" is attested from c. 1500. Gambling sense of "equal a bet" is from 1590s. See you as a casual farewell first attested 1891. Let me see as a pausing statement is recorded from 1510s. To have seen everything as a hyperbolic expression of astonishment is from 1957.
When you have seen one of their Pictures, you have seen all. [Blake, c. 1811]
- see (n.)
- c. 1300, "throne of a bishop, archbishop, or pope," also "throne of a monarch, a goddess, Antichrist, etc.," from Old French sie "seat, throne; town, capital; episcopal see," from Latin sedem (nominative sedes) "seat, throne, abode, temple," related to sedere "to sit" (see sedentary). Early 14c. as "administrative center of a bishopric;" c. 1400 as "province under the jurisdiction of a bishop."
