English
seance
Seance comes from French séance ‘session’, and goes back to séant.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentséant
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentséance‘session’
- Englishearliest quotation 2021seance
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentséant
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentséance‘session’
- Englishearliest quotation 2021seance
Earliest quotation: 2021, Jenni Fagan, Luckenbooth: “Even when she doesn’t host a seance for months…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sed- ‘to sit’
set, sit, sitting, method, chair, sell, seat, settle, nest, niche, possess, saddle, exodus, subsidy, nye, prasad, cathode, soot, beset, setter, anode, sate, chaise, besiege, ersatz, salo, nidal, polyhedron, nias, 80 more
through Proto-Italic *sedēō ‘to sit, to be sitting, to be seated’
possession, obsession, assessor, presidente, assize, 23 more
through Latin sedeō ‘[I] sit, [I] am seated’
president, size, session, resident, siege, assess, reside, residue, residual, insidious, sediment, dissident, sedan, possessive, sedentary, sedative, obsess, presidio, sedate, presidium, sessile, 27 more
through French séance ‘session’
Today it means
noun —
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French séant / seance