sellen

sellen

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of sellar

• cellyn, sel, selle, sellyn, sillen, sille, sulle, sullen, syllen
• sellenn, seollen, sullan (Early Middle English)
• zelle (Kent)
• sulle, sullen, suylle (Southwest Midlands)

Inherited from Old English sellan, from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną (“to give”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛlən/, /ˈsilən/
• (Southern, Southwest Midlands) IPA^(key): /ˈzylən/, /ˈsylən/

sellen (third-person singular simple present selleth, present participle sellynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative solde, past participle sold)

1. To grant; to confer or bestow:
   1. To gift; to give or confer a present.
   2. To serve or administer; to give comestibles.
   3. To sacrifice or hand over (one's life)
2. To sell; to make a sale or transaction:
   • c. 1275, Judas (Roud 2964, Child Ballad 23, Trinity College MS. B.14.39), folio 34, recto, lines 29-30; republished at Cambridge: Wren Digital Library (Trinity College), 2019 May 29:

     Wou ſitte ye poſtles. a[n]t wi nule ye ete. / ic am ibouſt a[n]t iſold. to day foꝛ oure mete.

     "How are you, apostles? Why won't you eat? / I was bought and sold today for our food."

   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[1], published c. 1410, Apocalips 13:17, page 122v, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     þat no man mai bie eiþ[ir] ſille .· but þei han þe caracter eiþ[ir] þe name of þe beeſte · eiþ[ir] þe nou[m]bꝛe of his name

     […] so nobody could buy or sell [anything] unless they had the mark, the name of the Beast, or the number denoting his name.

   1. To market; to put up for sale.
   2. To sell into slavery; to enslave for money.
3. (usually negative) To give up in exchange (outside of an explicit transaction).
   1. (religion) To sell one's soul; to consign one's soul to Hell.
   2. (figuratively) To weaken, adulterate or lose (in exchange)
4. To betray; to give up or hand over (usually a person)
   • c. 1275, Judas (Roud 2964, Child Ballad 23, Trinity College MS. B.14.39), folio 34, recto, lines 22-23; republished at Cambridge: Wren Digital Library (Trinity College), 2019 May 29:

     I nul ſulle my louerd foꝛ noneſ cunneſ eiſte. / bote hit be foꝛ þe þritti platen. þat he me bitaiſte.

     "I won't betray my Lord for any kind of good, / except for the thirty pieces that he left me."

5. To get revenge (for a transgression or wrong).

• sellere

• English: sell
  • → Dutch: sellen
• Scots: sell

• “sellen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną. Compare Old Saxon sellian, Old Dutch sellen, Old English sellan, Old Norse selja, Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (saljan).

sellen

1. to give, to hand over
2. to betray

• Middle High German: sellen
  • German: sellen (obsolete)

sellen

1. inflection of sellar:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative