The English verb ‘to see’ is very distantly related to the verb ‘to sue’ – and also to ‘segue’, ‘second’ and ‘sequence’.
Via Germanic and Latin, they all come from a Proto-Indo-European root whose meaning can be reconstructed as “to follow”.
In Germanic, this meaning shifted to “to follow with the eyes”.
Click my new graphic to learn more.
As the graphic shows, the Proto-Indo-European root that’s at the basis of these words is *sekʷ- (“to follow”). Through derivatives of its Latin ... 1/
2/ ... descendant ‘sequī’, English words such as ‘prosecute’, ‘consequence’, ‘pursue’, ‘sequel’, and ‘execution’ are related to ‘to see’ and ‘to sue’ as well.
In the Indo-European daughter languages, we can find many more descendants of *sekʷ-, such as Ancient Greek ἕπομαι (‘hépomai’, “to follow; to support; to pursue”), Sanskrit सच॑ते (‘sácate’, “to be associated with; to be connected with; to follow”), and Old Irish ‘seichithir’ (“to follow”).
Perhaps the most interesting descendant ... 2/
3/ ... in the light of today’s graphic is Lithuanian ‘sèkti’: this verb has both the original sense “to follow” and the newer “to observe”, which also arose on the way from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.
The Dutch verb ‘zien’ has a weird past tense: ‘zag’. Where does that g come from? Dutch has preserved a very old Germanic trait, which has been lost in most other languages. On my Patreon (tier 1), I tell all about the evolution of these verbs and their past tense (550 words).
Fascinating. I recall some of this from years ago when I was looking into the origin of the word "social." It seems like social and follow might be connected. 🤷♂️
Thanks for sharing your insights!
Yoïn van Spijk
🥑 Yours Truly! Unruly 🇨🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦🌻
Frank Engelhard
DerPumu (he/him)