▪ I. ceil, n. poet. rare.
(siːl)
[f. next.]
= ceiling. (Cf. the earlier cyll.)
| 1840 Galt Demon Dest. vii. 48 The awning clouds were as a cavern's ceil. 1861 Bentley Ballads 47 As the figures we see in an arabesque..In Gothic vaulted ceils. |
▪ II. ceil, ciel, v.
(siːl)
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 n. 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 favour 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, cœlātūra, 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 *celeüre, *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 W. 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 {hdotab}pph 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 A Bower..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’]. |