sain

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To make the sign of the cross on or over something or someone.
  2. To make the sign of the cross.
  3. To bless, to keep from evil influence.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/seɪn/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sain.wav

Word forms

sain sains saining sained

Etymology

From Middle English sainen, seinen, senen, sinen, signen, from Old English sēnian, seġnian, from Proto-Germanic *segnōną (“to mark with a cross, bless”), from Latin signō, from signum. Cognate with Dutch zegenen (“to bless”), German segnen (“to bless”), Irish séan (“sign, omen”) and Scottish Gaelic seun (“a charm”).

Derived words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.