sethen

Middle English

Alternative forms

cethyn, sethyn, seþine, seþen, seoþe, zeoþen, seþe, seeþ, seeth, seþ, seeþe

Etymology

From Old English sēoþan, from Proto-Germanic *seuþaną; a cognate of Middle Low German sēden, Middle Dutch sieden, Middle High German sieden, and Old Swedish siūþa.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈseːðən/

Verb

sethen

To boil or seethe; to heat a fluid:
1. To boil food or meat as to cook or prepare it.
2. To boil down or off; to reduce by boiling something.
3. To boil something into an essence; to boil as a form of processing.
4. To inflict punishment or injury by boiling (typically used of Hell)
To cook or heat (especially used of processing ceramics or ingredients)
To break down or process one's consumed food using stomach acid; to digest.
(rare, figurative) To make pure; to revitalise.

Usage notes

While the past singular forms in seth- and present forms in seth- were spelt the same way, the past forms' vowel was /ɛː/ while the present forms had /eː/.

Conjugation

Conjugation of sethen (strong class 2)

infinitive	(to) sethen, sethe
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	sethe	seth, soth
2nd-person singular	sethest	sothe, sode, seth, soth
3rd-person singular	setheth, seth	seth, soth
subjunctive singular	sethe	sothe¹, sode¹
imperative singular	sethe	—

plural²	sethen, sethe	sothen, sothe, soden, sode
imperative plural	setheth, sethe	—

participles	sethynge, sethende	soden, sode, ysoden, ysode

¹Replaced by the indicative in later Middle English.
²Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Derived terms

Descendants

English: seethe (sodden is from the former past participle)
Scots: seth, seith, seethe (sodden is from the former past participle)

References

“sẹ̄then, v.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-05.

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