A piece of fabric spread on a mast to catch the wind and propel a vessel through water.
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Proto-Germanicbefore 700 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish 'segl' (sail, curtain, veil), from Proto-Germanic *seglą (sail), of disputed deeper etymology. The most widelydiscussed connection is to PIE *sek- (to cut), suggesting a sail was originally 'a cut piece of cloth' — fabric cut and shaped to catch the wind. An alternative proposal links it to Latin 'sagulum' (a military cloak), from 'sagum' (a coarse woolen mantle worn by Gauls and Germanic warriors), possibly from the same
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Finnish 'sielu' (soul) is unrelated, but Finnish did borrow the word for 'sail' — 'sigli' and later 'siilas' — from early Germanic contact, making it one of the oldest documented Germanic loanwords into Finnic languages, evidence that Germanic-speakingpeoples were already active seafarers before the Viking Age.
in the Baltic. The verb 'to sail' developed from the noun in Old English as 'siglan' or 'seglian.' The figurative sense 'to sail through' (to accomplish easily) appeared by the 17th century, and 'to sail close to the wind' (to take risks) is a nautical metaphor that entered general English by the early 19th century. The compound 'sailcloth' preserves the original material sense.' Key roots: *seglą (Proto-Germanic: "sail").