seme

v. (wk.)

Gaw, Pe, Cl past semed; Erk pres. 3 sg. semes; WA pres. 3 sg. semes, semys, pres. pl. seme, pres. ptcp. semand, past sg. semyd, semed

‘to beseem, suit, seem fitting; seem, appear’  (Modern English seem)

Etymology

Formally ME semen ‘to suit, seem’, PDE seem could continue OE (ge)sēman ‘to smooth over, put right, settle, reconcile, pacify’ (a wk. 1 v. probably formed on the adj. PGmc *sōmi-, originally in the sense ‘suitable’; see seme (adj.)), but the development of the sense ‘suit, seem’ is always explained by ON input via the cognate represented by OIcel sœma ‘to honour’ (so e.g. OED, MED, Bj., GDS; cp. further MHG süemen ‘to decorate’) or, more attractively, the related OIcel v. sóma ‘to beseem, become, befit’ (TGD) with the vocalism explained either by reference to the subj. in /ø:/ or by the influence of ME seme (adj.) . It is not possible to tell whether ME semen represents a purely semantic loan, or a wholly new importation (of both morphemic and semantic material) and should be considered a distinct lexeme from semen in the OE sense.

PGmc Ancestor

*sōmi-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

sóma ‘to beseem, become, befit’; sœma ‘to honour’
(ONP sóma (vb.); sǿma (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Icel sóma; Far, søma, Icel sæma, Norw søma, ODan søme, Dan sømme, OSw söma, syma

OE Cognate

(ge)sēman ‘to smooth over, put right, settle, reconcile, pacify’

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

C3

Attestation

Very common and widespread from early ME (from Orrm).

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 73, 201, 235 etc.; Pe 760; Cl 117, 416, 793; Erk 98; WA 70, 635, 716 etc.

On the sense in Pe, see EVG 760n.  For MS A seme at WA 682 (D se), TPD emend to *sene.

Bibliography

MED sēmen (v.2) , OED seem (v.2) , HTOED , Dance seme (v.), Bj. 219, de Vries sóma; sœma, Mag. sómi; sæma, Bj-L. sømme, Heid. sōmi*-, Orel *sōmjanan, AEW sœman