sell

Etymology 1

From Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-. Compare Danish sælge, Swedish sälja, Icelandic selja.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive, ditransitive) To transfer goods or provide services in exchange for money.
   I'll sell you three books for a hundred dollars.
   Sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.
   No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again. 2013-08-10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
2. (ergative) To be sold.
   This old stock will never sell.
   The corn sold for a good price.
3. To promote a product or service.
   Howard: You're gonna feel terrible when I'm in a wheelchair. Which, by the way, would fit easily in the back of this award-winning minivan. Bernadette: Fine, we'll go to the E.R. Just stop selling me on the van. Howard: You're right. It sells itself. 2016, “The Fetal Kick Catalyst”, in The Big Bang Theory
4. To promote a particular viewpoint.
   My boss is very old-fashioned and I'm having a lot of trouble selling the idea of working at home occasionally.
5. To betray for money or other things.
6. (slang) To trick, cheat, or manipulate someone.
   House was jammed again that night, and we sold this crowd the same way. 1884, Mark Twain, chapter XXIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
   Raul Meireles was the victim of the home side's hustling on this occasion giving the ball away to the impressive David Vaughan who slipped in Taylor-Fletcher. The striker sold Daniel Agger with the best dummy of the night before placing his shot past keeper Pepe Reina. January 12, 2011, Saj Chowdhury, “Blackpool 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC
7. (professional wrestling, slang) To pretend that an opponent's blows or maneuvers are causing legitimate injury; to act.
8. (reflexive, euphemistic) To work as a prostitute.

noun

1. An act of selling; sale.
   Now the easiest sell in traveldom is made even easier. 1963, American Society of Travel Agents, ASTA Travel News, volume 32, page 55
2. (figurative, by extension) The promotion of an idea for acceptance.
   This is going to be a tough sell.
3. An easy task.
4. (colloquial, dated) An imposition, a cheat; a hoax; a disappointment; anything occasioning a loss of pride or dignity.
   What a sell for Lena! 1922, Katherine Mansfield, The Doll's House (Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, 354)

Etymology 2

From French selle, from Latin sella.

noun

1. (obsolete) A seat or stool.
2. (archaic) A saddle.

Etymology 3

From Old Saxon seill or Old Norse seil. Cognate with Dutch zeel (“rope”), German Seil (“rope”).

noun

1. (regional, obsolete) A rope (usually for tying up cattle, but can also mean any sort of rope).
   He picked up the sell from the straw-strewn barn-floor, snelly sneaked up behind her and sleekly slung it around her swire while scryingː "dee, dee ye fooking quhoreǃ".