sele

From Middle English sele (“happiness, good fortune, bliss; an occasion, period of time”), from Old English sǣl (“time, occasion, an opportune time, opportunity, happiness, prosperity, good times”), from Proto-West Germanic *sālī, from Proto-Germanic *sēliz. Related to silly.

• IPA^(key): /siːl/
• Homophone: seal
• Rhymes: -iːl

sele (countable and uncountable, plural seles)

1. (obsolete or dialectal) Happiness, fortune.
2. (obsolete or dialectal, British) The right time or occasion for something, an opportune moment, season
3. Greeting, salutation.
   • 1862, George Borrow, chapter XXXV, in Wild Wales Its People‚ Language and Scenery‎^[2] (Fiction), Read Central, archived from the original on 31 October 2013:

     I found my friend honest Pritchard smoking his morning pipe at the front door, and after giving him the sele of the day, […]

   • 1897, William Morris, chapter XIV, in The Water of the Wondrous Isles‎^[3] (Fantasy), published 2005, page 245:

     When the morning was come […] so she arose and thrust her grief back into her heart, and gave her fellow-farer the sele of the day, […]

• haysel (“hay season”)

• silly

• slee, Slee, lese, lees, EELS, Lees, eels, Else, seel, else, ELEs, l'ees

• IPA^(key): /ˈsele/ [ˈse.le]
• Hyphenation: se‧le

sele (epicene, plural seles)

1. calm, tranquil

   Synonyms: calmu, tranquilu

• IPA^(key): [ˈsɛlɛ]
• Rhymes: -ɛlɛ
• Hyphenation: se‧le

sele n (diminutive selátko)

1. piglet

• “sele”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “sele”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “sele”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

sele

1. locative singular of selo

   Synonym: selu

• Else
• lese

sele

1. knife

sele

1. cut (with a knife)

From Old English sǣl, from Proto-West Germanic *sālī, in turn from Proto-Germanic *sēliz.

• cele, seile, seel, sel

• IPA^(key): /seːl/, /sɛːl/

sele (plural seles)

1. happiness, prosperity, fortune
2. time, duration, season

• English: sele, seel
• Scots: seil

• “sē̆l(e, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old English seol, seolh, from Proto-West Germanic *selh, in turn from Proto-Germanic *selhaz.

• cele, sel

• IPA^(key): /sɛːl/

sele (plural seles)

1. seal (animal)

• English: seal
• Scots: selch
• Yola: sel

• “sēl(e, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old Norse seli, sili.

sele m (definite singular selen, indefinite plural seler, definite plural selene)

1. a harness (usually for horses, dogs and small children)
2. braces (UK) or suspenders (US) (used on trousers)

• buksesele
• seletøy

• “sele” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• esel, esle, lees, lese, -else

• sållå (dialectal)

From Old Norse seli, sili.

sele m (definite singular selen, indefinite plural selar, definite plural selane)

1. a harness (usually for horses, dogs and small children)
2. braces (UK) or suspenders (US) (used on trousers)
3. (rare, colloquial) seat belt

   Synonym: bilbelte

Depending on dialect, this term can also mean different parts of horse harness.

• buksesele
• seletøy

• “sele” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-West Germanic *sali, from Proto-Germanic *saliz, from Proto-Indo-European *sel-.

Cognate with Old Saxon seli, Old High German sali, Old Norse salr (Swedish sal), Lombardic sala; and with Old Church Slavonic село (selo), Russian село́ (seló). There was also a Germanic variant *saloz-, Old English sæl (“great hall, (large) house, castle”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈse.le/

sele m (nominative plural selas)

1. great hall, house, dwelling, prison
   • Winter ýþe beleác ísgebinde óþ ðæt óðer com geár in geardas swá nú gyt déþ ða ðe sele bewitiaþ wuldortorhtan weder. ― Winter locks the waves with bonds of ice until another year came to the dwellings of those who keep a constant watch for good weather. (Beowulf)
2. tabernacle, gesele

Strong i-stem:

• sæl

• Middle English: *sele
  • ⇒ Middle English: wunsele

• John R. Clark Hall (1916) “sele”, in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[4], 2nd edition, New York: Macmillan
• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “sele”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[5], second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

From Latin sella.

sele oblique singular, f (oblique plural seles, nominative singular sele, nominative plural seles)

1. saddle (equipment used on a horse)

• enseler

• Middle French: selle
  • French: selle
• Norman: selle

From Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu.

sēle f

1. soul, life

Strong feminine o-stem

• Köbler, Gerhard, Altfriesisches Wörterbuch (4th edition 2014)

sele

1. inflection of selar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

sele

1. other

• IPA^(key): /ˈsele/ [ˈse.le]
• Rhymes: -ele
• Syllabification: se‧le

sele

1. inflection of ser:
   1. second-person singular imperative combined with le
   2. second-person singular voseo imperative combined with le

sele c

2. a harness (for a horse or other draft animal)

   Synonym: seldon

4. a harness (arrangement with straps or the like to provide for attachment or to carry something or the like)

• betsel (“bridle”)
• fira (“lower (by letting out on a rope)”)
• fira sig ner (“rappel, abseil”)
• hissa
• tygel (“rein”)
• vinscha (“winch”)

• sele in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• sele in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• sele in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish سله,^[1] from Arabic سَلَّة (salla),^[2] from Classical Syriac ܣܲܠܛܵܐ (sallətā, “basket”).

sele (definite accusative seleyi, plural seleler)

1. a wide wicker basket

From French selle.

sele (definite accusative seleyi, plural seleler)

1. saddle (of a bicycle)

sele (definite accusative seleyi, plural seleler)

1. alternative form of sere