Etymograph

English

sight

Sight comes from Old English sihþ ‘something seen’, from Proto-West Germanic *sihti ‘seeing, sight’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- ‘to see, notice’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sekʷ-1‘to see’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sehwaną2‘to see’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sehwan3‘to see’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sihti4‘seeing’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150sihþ4‘something seen’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sighte4
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1588–1593sight4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *sehwaną
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *sehwan
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *sihti
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English sight
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus: “Thy sight is young, / And thou shalt read…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sekʷ-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *sehwaną‘to see’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sehwanąWiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *sehwan‘to see’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sehwanWiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *sihti‘to see’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sihtiWiktionary, English sight‘seeing’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150sihþWiktionary, English sight‘something seen’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sighteWiktionary, English sight
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1588–1593sightWiktionary, English sight. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus: “Thy sight is young, / And thou shalt read…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with sight, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- ‘to see, notice’

  • say ← saien ← seċġan ← *saggjan ← *sagjaną
  • second ← secunde ← secundus ← *sekʷondo-
  • social ← sociālis ← socius ← sokios ← *sokjos
  • saw ← sawe ← saga ← *sagā ← *sagǭ
  • society ← societé ← societé ← societās ← socius
  • executive ← executif ← executivus ← exsequi
  • suit ← sute ← suite ← siute ← *sequita
  • associate ← associat ← associātus ← associō ← sociō
  • subsequent ← subsequēns
  • sequence ← sequentia ← sequēns ← sequor ← *sekʷōr
  • pursue ← pursuen ← pursure ← prōsequor ← sequor
  • sue ← seuen ← suer

57 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun The sense or faculty by which objects are perceived through the agency of light; the sense by which we see.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sight”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *sehwaną, Proto-West Germanic *sehwan, Proto-West Germanic *sihti. 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.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- / sight