geseon

Old English[edit]

ġesēon

to see
- late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy
  ...þāra þe wit ǣr ne ġesāwon.
  ...that we haven't seen before.
- c. 992, Ælfric, "Midlent Sunday"
  On ōðre wīsan wē sċēawiaþ mētinge and on ōðre wīsan stafas. Ne gǣþ nā māre tō mētinge būtan þæt þū hit ġesēo and herie. Nis nā ġenōg þæt þū stafas sċēawiġe būtan þū hīe ēac rǣde and þæt andġiet understande.
  We look at pictures in one way and letters in another. You don't do anything with a painting except see it and praise it. Looking at letters is not enough unless you also read them and understand the meaning.
- c. 897, Alfred the Great, translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care
  Hēr man mæġ ġīet ġesēon heora swaðu, ac wē him ne cunnon æfter spyrian.
  Here you can still see their footprints, but we don't know how to follow them.
to appear, look
- c. 992, Ælfric, "On the Purification of St. Mary"
  Lytel he wæs ðær gesewen, ac ðeah-hwæðere he wæs swiðe micel and ormæte. Lytel he wæs gesewen, forðan ðe he wolde gefeccan þa lytlan, and gebringan up to his rice.""
  Little he there appeared, yet was he, nevertheless, very great and infinite. Little he appeared, because he would fetch the little and bring them up to his kingdom."

"To look" as in "to appear" is rendered with the phrase "to be seen": Lȳtel hē wæs ġesewen (“He looked small,” literally “he was seen small”), Iċ þē ġehāte þæt hit swā nis swā hit ġesewen is! (“I promise you, it's not what it looks like!”, literally “it's not how it's seen”). Sometimes the pronoun man is used in this function: Man ġeseah swelċe ān fȳren hring norðan cōme (“It looked like a ring of fire was coming from the north”).

Conjugation of ġesēon (strong class 5)