English
sighten
From sight + -en.
Formed from sight + -en
Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- ‘to see’
…
Proto-West Germanic *sehwan ‘to see’
Proto-West Germanic *sihti ‘seeing’
Old English sihþ ‘something seen’
Middle English sighte
English sight
Today it means
verb To add a fugitive colour to (a paste), to enable the printer to determine whether the figures are well-printed or not.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “sighten”. 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 / sighten