The faculty of seeing; the ability to perceive with the eyes; something seen or worth seeing.
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Old Englishbefore 1000 CEwell-attested
From Old English 'gesiht, gesihþ' (something seen, vision, the faculty of seeing), from Proto-Germanic *ga-sihtiją, derived from *sehwaną (to see), from PIE *sekʷ- (to see, to follow, to perceive). The Old English prefix 'ge-' was a perfective/collective marker that was gradually lost during the Middle English period, leaving only 'sight.' The PIE root *sekʷ- reveals a profound ancient connection between seeing and following: Latin 'sequī' (to follow) comes
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Seeing and following were the same concept in Proto-Indo-European. PIE *sekʷ- meant both 'to see' and 'to follow' — givingEnglish 'see' and 'sight' through Germanic, and Latin 'sequī' (to follow), 'sequence,' 'consequence,' and 'prosecute' through Latin. Your eyes follow what they see; you follow what your eyes see.
how fundamental the metaphor of 'eye-following' was to Indo-European thought. In Old English, 'gesiht' could mean a physical view, a vision or apparition, or the abstract faculty of sight itself. Key roots: *sekʷ- (Proto-Indo-European: "to see, to follow, to perceive").
Sicht(German (sight, view))zicht(Dutch (sight, view))sikt(Swedish (visibility))sequī(Latin (to follow, from *sekʷ-))hépesthai(Greek (to follow, from *sekʷ-))síht(Old High German (sight))