Back All seals and symbols of redeemed sin
D. Murali
Suddenly, seals are everywhere! `Newborn seal pups, the first of the season, have arrived at Donna Nook national nature reserve,' announces www.marketrasentoday.co.uk. `Nepal government, Maoists seal pact on weapons,' reads a headline on www.gg2.net.
`Australia, Indonesia seal security pact,' says http://news.ninemsn.com.au. `Pakistan willing to seal off border with Afghanistan,' informs New York Jewish Times. The UK Government wants to seal Channel Islands tax loophole, states Accountancy Age.
And, closer home, the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) had to resume its sealing drive after the apex court put its seal on the stern move against illegal commercial establishments. Delhi traders may take time to come to terms with the sealing operation. Meanwhile, let's explore the word in detail.
The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines `seal' as "a device or substance used to join two things together." Sealant is "material used for sealing something so as to make it airtight or watertight." The MCD action isn't about "any of numerous carnivorous marine mammals (families Phocidae and Otariidae) that live chiefly in cold regions and have limbs modified into webbed flippers adapted primarily to swimming," as the animal `seal' is defined by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Seal, as a transitive verb, means fastening with a seal to prevent tampering, though one learns that some traders in Capital have been breaking the seal and entering their premises. What is so special about a seal is that it is "a closure for a package or container that must be broken when the package or container is opened and can therefore reveal tampering," as Encarta enlightens. "Let me unseal the letter," reads a line from King Lear. A `sealed order' refers to "written instructions not to be opened or read before a specific time." The Winter's Tale mentions `the seal'd-up oracle'. And in Julius Caesar, you can hear Antony announce, "Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal. To every Roman citizen he gives, to every several man, seventy-five drachmas." Seal can be "a ring or stamp with a raised or engraved symbol or emblem that is pressed into wax in order to certify a signature or authenticate a document," says http://encarta.msn.com.
Sealing the deal
"Corporate seals state the name, date and state of incorporation," elucidates http://dictionary.law.com. "Notaries increasingly use a rubber stamp instead of a seal since their print is easier to microfilm for official recording than is a faint embossed impression. Contracts used to be `sealed,' but that is rare today."
Seal can take other forms too, "to make an agreement more certain." For example, "The two leaders sealed their agreement with a handshake," as http://dictionary.cambridge.org explains. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julia speaks of sealing the bargain `with a holy kiss,' while it is `a lovely kiss' that seals `the title' in The Taming of the Shrew.
"With blood he seal'd a testament of noble-ending love," writes the Bard in King Henry V. On a tragic note, among the dying lines of Romeo are these: "Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death!" Digging up further into Shakespeare's works for seals, you'd find "All seals and symbols of redeemed sin," in Othello.
Seal, as `design stamped on wax,' dates back to 1230, informs Online Etymology Dictionary. The word is "from Old French seel (French sceau)... from Latin sigillum `small picture, engraved figure, seal,' diminutive of signum `mark, token'." The word `sign' shares the same origins, and has a probable cousin in `see'. Seal to mean placing a seal on a document is recorded from 1338, notes www.etymonline.com. "Sense of `to close up with wax, lead, cement, etc.' is attested from 1661, from the notion of wax seals on envelopes. To seal one's fate (1810) probably reflects the notion of a seal on an execution warrant."
If an event seals someone's fate, they are certain to fail or to have an unpleasant experience in the future, says Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms.
In dentistry, seal is a material, usually plastic, that hardens in the mouth, and "used to close the coronal opening in a tooth during endodontic treatment," according to Dorlands Medical Dictionary. In root canal therapy, sealer is "a substance used for cementing silver and gutta-percha cones to the tooth structure." Lest you complain, the next entry in the dictionary is `seam'!
SEAL, in computing, is `Semantics-directed Environment Adaptation Language,' as described on http://foldoc.org. The acronym also stands for `Software-Optimised Encryption Algorithm', a very fast stream cipher optimised for machines with a 32-bit word size and plenty of RAM (random access memory), http://en.wikipedia.org notes.
Navy Seals
SEAL also refers to `SEa Air Land'. The US Navy SEAL forces are the elite Special Operations Forces, "employed in unconventional warfare, foreign internal defence, direct action, counter-terrorism, and special reconnaissance operations," informs Wikipedia. "The guerrilla and reconnaissance force of the US Navy, specially trained for covert operations," defines An Unofficial Dictionary for Marines on http://4mermarine.com.
Archaeology Wordsmith (www.reference-wordsmith.com) traces that ancient seals were made of bone, ivory, stone, or wood; and that they had an intaglio design, and were in the form of stamps or cylinder seals. "The first can have a very wide range of shapes, and gives single impressions. The second, characteristic of ancient Mesopotamia, is rolled across the surface to yield a frieze of repeat designs." Interestingly, seals "were fundamental in the development of writing system and were a status symbol of authority and sometimes accorded talismanic properties."
Wish MCD's seals had similar magical properties as a solution to the sins of urban planning.
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