English
seething
Seething comes from Middle English sethyng ‘Boiling for the purpose of heating or warming…’, from Old English sēoþan ‘to cook’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂sewt- ‘to move about, roil, seethe’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂sewt-‘to move about, roil, seethe’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*seuþaną‘to seethe’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sēoþan‘to cook’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sethen‘to boil food or meat as to cook or prepare it’
- Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500sethyng‘Boiling for the purpose of heating or warming food’
- Englishearliest quotation 1889seething
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂sewt-‘to move about, roil, seethe’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*seuþaną‘to seethe’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sēoþan‘to cook’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sethen‘to boil food or meat as to cook or prepare it’
- Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500sethyng‘Boiling for the purpose of heating or warming food’
- Englishearliest quotation 1889seething
Earliest quotation: 1889, Rudyard Kipling, The Education of Otis Yeere: “Otis was unfeignedly thankful to lay down his work…”
Formed from seethe + -ing
Proto-Indo-European *h₂sewt- ‘to seethe, boil’
Proto-Germanic *seuþaną ‘to boil, seethe’
Proto-West Germanic *seuþan ‘to seethe, to boil’
Old English sēoþan ‘to boil, seethe’
Middle English sethen ‘to boil, seethe’
English seethe
Linked words
through Proto-Germanic *seuþaną ‘to seethe’
Today it means
adj Filled with unexpressed anger; in a state of being livid.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂sewt- / seething