English → Latin
“seal” in Latin
signumvisible indication: sign, mark, signal; seal, signet; emblem, ensignsigillumfigurine, statuette; sealfidēsfaith; belief (belief without empirical evidence, direct experience, or observation); reliance (act of relying on or truresignōto resign, give up to; to unseal, open; to annul, cancel, invalidate, rescindsignōto mark, sign; to seal, stamp; to statuecōnsignōto furnish with a seal, seal, sign; to attest, certify, vouch for; establish, make known; to write down, register, note,obsignōto seal up; to affix a seal to; to seal an accusation; to pledge or mortgage under hand and seal
The English word seal itself goes back to Latin signum, through sigillum.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
seal s.
PROP., Impression, signum: sigillum. To break a seal, resignare.
A stamp, *forma qua signatoria utimur. A seal ring, annulus quo signatorio utimur (Valerius Max., 8, 14, 4).
Figuratively, fides. To tell a thing to anybody under the seal of secrecy, taciturnitati et fidei alicujus clam concredere aliquid (Vid: Plaut., Trin., 1, 2, 104; not, as Ruhnken writes, dicere alicui aliquid sub fide silentii, which is not Latin). I tell you this under the seal of secrecy, hoc tibi soli dictum puta; haec tu tecum habeto; hoc tibi in aurem dixerim; hoc lapidi dixerim (☞ not sub rosa tibi hoc dixerim).
seal v.
signare: consignare (☞ not subsignare in this sense): obsignare (to seal up): signo imprimere aliquid: sigillum imprimere in re (to imprint the mark of a seal; e.g., in cera, on wax). To seal despatches, signo suo tabellas imprimere: to seal a letter, litteris sigillum imprimere: sealed up, obsignatus
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for seal?
- The usual Latin words for “seal” are signum, sigillum, fidēs; also resignō, signō, cōnsignō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.