seofian

From Proto-West Germanic *seufōn. Related to Dutch zucht.

• IPA^(key): /ˈse͜oː.fi.ɑn/, [ˈse͜oː.vi.ɑn]

sēofian

1. to sigh, lament, complain of, bemoan
   • 10th century, The Seafarer:

     þonne hē be clifum cnossað. · Calde ġeþrungen
     wǣron mīne fēt, · forste ġebunden,
     caldum clommum, · þǣr þā ċeare sēofedun.
     Hāt ymb heortan · hungor innan slāt
     merewērġes mōd. · Þæt sē mon ne wāt

     then it beats near cliffs. My feet were
     squeezed by cold, bound by frost,
     with cold fetters, when there we bemoaned
     sorrows. Hot about heart, hunger within tore
     a sea-weary mind. The man didn't know that,

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “sēofian”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.