Forms: 5 ceel-yn, selyn, 6 seele, sele, cele, cyle, syle, (Sc. syill), 6–7 seel(e, 7 seil(e, siel, ceal, seal, 7– ciel, ceil. [Of ceil v. (recorded of date 1428) and the derived ceiling (1380), ceiled, with the cognate sb. found as CYLL in sense of ‘canopy’ c. 1500, celure, found as syllure, sylure ? a. 1400, the derivation is doubtful. The group is not very old in Eng., and traces of it in French are scanty.
Three sources have been suggested: (1) L. cēlāre, F. celer (11th c. in Littré) to hide, conceal, cover up; (2) L. cælāre to carve, engrave in relief; (3) L. cælum sky, vault of heaven. If L. cēlāre could be shown to have acquired in late L. or Romanic the simple sense of ‘cover,’ it would suitably explain the Eng. words in all their uses; but such is not the case, and in particular, F. celer does not appear to approach the required sense. In favor of L. cælāre (cf. cieler Godef.) there are certainly early quotations (see sense 1, and CEILING 1) in which ‘carve,’ ‘carving,’ is a possible sense; but nothing of the kind occurs under CELURE, and if ceil ever meant ‘carve’ this sense evidently soon entirely gave way to one congruous with that of CELURE. On the other hand we have the known fact that med.L. cælum, It. cielo, F. ciel, acquired the sense of ‘canopy, vault, roof, tester of a bed, etc.’; and there are traces of a derived vb. cælāre to canopy or vault, whence cælātum, cælātūra, in senses identical with or derived from cælum. Difficulties are that while ceil v. and celure were so common in 15–16th-c. English, and can hardly be connected with L. exc. through Fr., their occurrence in OF. itself is extremely rare: a single instance of cielee pa. pple. (with variants celee, chelee, couverte) has been noted in Chrestien de Troyes, Ywain (ed. Förster 964). It is possible that *celeūre, *celure:—L. cælātūra was common in Anglo-French, and thence passed into English, but the whole subject remains for the present beset with conflicting difficulties; the apparently certain point being that we cannot separate the Eng. words from cælum, ciel, canopy. See CELURE]
† 1. trans. ? To furnish with a canopy, hangings, or a screen. Obs. Cf. CELURE.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 65. Ceelyn wythe syllure, celo. Ibid., 452. Selyn wythe sylure, celo.
† 2. To cover with a lining of woodwork, sometimes of plaster, etc. (the interior roof or walls of a house or apartment); to wainscot. Obs.
1428. in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 6. The seide parlore … lattizid, glazid and selyd.
1519. Horman, Vulg., in Promp. Parv., 65. These wallys shal be celyd with cypruese. The rofe shall be celed vautwyse and with cheker work.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Chron. iii. 5. The greate house syled he with Pyne tre, and ouerlayed it with the best golde. [Wyclif covered; 1611 sieled; Vulg. texit; Heb. has same word [Hebrew] for both syled and ouerlayed.]
1538. Leland, Itin., VII. 87. Fine greynyd Okes, apte to sele Howses.
1599. Minsheu, Sp. Dict., Enyessar, to seele or plaister houses.
a. 1600[?]. Aberd. Reg. (Jam. s.v. Sile), To syill the kirk.
1611. Cotgr., Plancher, to seele or close, with boards.
fig. 1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. ii. (1641), 18/2. This proud Palace where we rule and dwel … had fall’n long since, Had’t not been siel’d-round with moist Elements.
1615. Wither, Sheph. Hunt., Juvenil. (1633), 419.
| Whil’st the rest have built a Bower | |
| To defend them from a shower; | |
| Seil’d so close, with boughes all greene, | |
| Tytan cannot pry betweene. |
b. To overlay (with gold, marble, etc.).
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 571. Slitting marble into thin plates, therewith to couer and seel as it were the outsides of walls.
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., 181. Their Palaces they seele and trim with gold.
3. esp. To line the roof of, provide or construct an inner roof for (a building or apartment); usually, to plaster the roof. Cf. CEILING 5.
1519. [see 2].
1696. Phil. Trans., XIX. 346. The Church is very Lofty, and Cealed with Irish Oak.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, Germany, II. 333. The rooms are wainscoted and cieled with ash of Poland.
1799. Monthly Rev., XXVIII. 517. Every apartment is floored with sandal, and ceiled with nacre.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, iii. 27. The nave has just been ceiled in wood.
fig. 1876. Mrs. Whitney, Sights & Ins., xxxiv. 317. Enormous precipices wall it in; the clear blue ceils it over.
4. Naut. To line (a ship, or a compartment in a ship). Cf. CEILING 4 b.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 85. The Bread-room … being seeled with Lead [on p. 84. the words used are ‘lined with lead’].
