English
sea
Sea comes from Old English sǣ, from Proto-Germanic *saiwiz, of uncertain origin (perhaps from *sīhwaną ‘to filter’).
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seykʷ-1‘to filter’uncertain
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīhwaną2‘to percolate, filter’uncertain
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*saiwiz3‘sea, lake’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*saiwi3‘body of water’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sǣ3
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500see3‘sea’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602sea3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *sīhwaną
- 2 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *saiwiz, which cites Orel
- 3 Wiktionary, English sea
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “To be, or not to be, that is the…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seykʷ-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *sīhwaną‘to filter’uncertain
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīhwanąWiktionary, Proto-Germanic *saiwiz, which cites Orel‘to percolate, filter’uncertain
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*saiwizWiktionary, English sea‘sea, lake’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*saiwiWiktionary, English sea‘body of water’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sǣWiktionary, English sea
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500seeWiktionary, English sea‘sea’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602seaWiktionary, English sea. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “To be, or not to be, that is the…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with sea, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *seykʷ- ‘to filter’
through Proto-Germanic *saiwiz ‘body of water: lake, sea, ocean’
- soul ← soule ← sāwol ← *saiwalu ← *saiwalō
3 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun A large body of salt water.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “sea”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *sīhwaną, Proto-Germanic *saiwiz. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.