Etymology
1. O.E.
sellan "to give," from P.Gmc.
*saljanan (cf. O.N.
selja "to hand over, deliver, sell;" O.Fris.
sella, O.H.G.
sellen "to give, hand over, sell;" Goth.
saljan "to offer a sacrifice"), perhaps a causative form of the root of O.E.
sala "sale." One of the first things a student of Old English has to learn is that the word that looks like
sell usually means "give." Meaning "to give up for money" had emerged by c.1000. Slang meaning "to swindle" is from 1597. The noun phrase
hard sell is recorded from 1952. To
sell one's soul is from c.1570.
Sell-by date is from 1972. To
sell (someone) down the river is first recorded 1927, but probably from slavery days, on notion of sale from the Upper South to the cotton plantations of the Deep South (attested in this literal sense since 1851). To
sell like hot cakes is from 1839.
2. From Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-.
3. Cognates
4. Cognate with Scots sell (“to sell”), Danish sælge (“to sell”), Norwegian Bokmål selge (“to sell”), Norwegian Nynorsk selja, selje (“to sell”), Swedish sälja (“to sell”), Faroese and Icelandic selja (“to sell”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (saljan, “to pay tribute, make an offer”). See: Middle English '
sellen', Old English '
sellan', Proto-Germanic '
*saljaną', Scots '
sell', Danish '
sælge', Norwegian '
selge', Norwegian, nynorsk '
selja', Swedish '
sälja'.
Verbs referencing "sell"
Sranan
seri, Tok Pisin salim, Latin
consulo, Finnish with old forms
sallia, Danish
sælge.