From Middle English sien, from Old English sīgan (“to sink, descend”), from Proto-Germanic *sīganą, *sīhwaną (“to strain, drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *seykʷ- (“to pour, strain”). Cognate with Dutch zijgen (“to filter”), German seihen (“to strain, sieve”), Icelandic síga (“to lower”).
From Middle English sien, from Old English sīgan (“to sink, descend”), from Proto-Germanic *sīganą, *sīhwaną (“to strain, drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *seykʷ- (“to pour, strain”). Cognate with Dutch zijgen (“to filter”), German seihen (“to strain, sieve”), Icelandic síga (“to lower”).
Meanings
(intransitive) To sink; fall; drop.
(intransitive) To fall, as in a swoon; faint.
(dialectal, intransitive) To drop, as water; trickle.
(transitive) To sift.
(dialectal, transitive) To strain, as milk; filter.
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
sey
alternative
lexicographic
sying
Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
sied
Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
sied
Tense=Past
lexicographic
sies
Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres
lexicographic
sigh
alternative
lexicographic
sye
alternative
lexicographic
sie en · PRON · etymology 2
Pronunciation
/siː/
Meanings
(gender-neutral, nominative, nonstandard, rare, singular, third-person) Gender-neutral subject pronoun, grammatically equivalent to the gendered pronouns he and she
"You must be Ash," sie said, hir voice a shade deeper than Amaranth's. 2010 September 16, Jessica Freely, Amaranth and Ash, La Vergne: Lightning Source, →ISBN, page 101:
Sie may feel that hir actual identity of hir gender is supposed to be both/neither male or female, outside of gender, third gender, beyond gender, absence of gender, mixing gender, changing gender, or all genders. 2011 May 19, Ken Wickham, The Other Genders: Androgyne, Genderqueer, Non-Binary Gender Variant, CreateSpace, →ISBN, page 7:
When I asked hir about hir preferred self-identification in this scene, sie offered me this language, 'sie sharply performs the hotness of teasing all the audience from the edge-space of androgyny.' 2011 August 16, Petra Kuppers, Disability Culture and Community Performance: Find a Strange and Twisted Shape, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, →LCCN, LCC PN1590.H36 K87 2011, page 18:
If the child is about the intellectual equal of the parent, sie will eventually start holding hir own in discussions, […] 1993 September 24, Alex Martelli, “punishment vs ethics (was Re: Discipline my daughters)”, in alt.sex.bondage (Usenet):