Middle English sēn, from Old English seon (Anglian sean) "be or become aware of by means of the eye; look, behold;" also "perceive mentally, understand; experience; visit (a place); inspect" (contracted class V strong verb; past tense seah, past participle sewen), from Proto-Germanic *sehwanan (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German sehan, Middle High German, German sehen, Old Frisian sia, Middle Dutch sien, Old Norse sja, Gothic saihwan).
This is reconstructed to be from PIE root *sekw- (2) "to see." That PIE root often was said to be probably identical with *sekw- (1) "to follow," which produced words for "say" in Greek and Latin, and also words for "follow" (such as Latin sequor), but "opinions differ in regard to the semantic starting-point and sequences" [Buck]. Thus see might mean, etymologically, "follow with the eyes" (and in some languages extending to "speak, say, tell"). But OED finds this "involves a hypothetical sense-development which it is not easy to accept with confidence," and Boutkan also doubts the connection and gives the word "No certain PIE etymology."
It is attested by late Old English as "be able to see with the eyes, have the faculty of sight, not be blind."
As the sense of sight affords far more complete and definite information respecting external objects than any other of the senses, mental perceptions are in many (perh. in all) languages referred to in visual terms, and often with little or no consciousness of metaphor. [OED]
English see has been used in many of these senses since early Middle English: "foresee; behold in the imagination or in a dream," also "to recognize the force of (a demonstration)," all c. 1200.
It is attested by c. 1300 as "ensure, make sure" (something is so, someone does something). To see to is by late 14c. as "be attentive to, take special care about" (also "to look at"); hence "attend to, arrange for, bring about as a result." See to it "take special care; see that it be done" is from late 15c.
The sense of "escort" (as in see you home) is attested c. 1600 in Shakespeare. The meaning "to receive as a visitor" is attested from c. 1500. The wagering sense of "equal a bet, accept by staking a similar sum" is by 1590s. Used in phrases expressing comparative and superlative (best I've ever seen) from early 14c.
Imperative use of see! "look! behold!" is by early 14c. Emphatic expression see here is attested from early 15c.; probably the notion is "see, here is ...;" but the modern use of it as "a brusque form of address used to preface an order," etc. [OED] is by 1897 in schoolboy talk. The qualifying expression as far as I can see is attested from 1560s.
Let me see as a statement expressing consideration when the speaker is trying to recall something is recorded from 1510s. See you as a casual farewell is attested by 1891 (see you soon; probably short for hope to see you soon). To see something in (someone, etc.) "perceive good or attractive qualities in" is by 1832.
late 14c. (perhaps mid-13c. in Anglo-French), grave, gravei, gravi, greve, gravey, gravee, grovi, grauvey, with u/v variation typical of medieval spelling. From Old French gravé, graué, "seasoned broth or sauce," ultimately from Persian zirbaja, said by H.F. Amedroz to mean “concoction in a pot.” The unattested intermediate term should have been something like *girveie (see evolution of ginger for comparison.)
The dish became popular in Europe in the 14th century, probably introduced through the Emirate of Granada in what is now Spain.
Recipe for Zîrbâja […] Take a young, cleaned hen and put it in a pot with a little salt, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, saffron and sufficient of vinegar and fresh oil, and when the meat is cooked, take peeled, crushed almonds and good white sugar, four ûqiyas of each; dissolve them in rosewater, pour in the pot and let it boil; then leave it on the embers until the fat rises. It is the most nutritious of dishes and good for all temperaments; this dish is made with hens or pigeons or doves, or with the meat of a young lamb. [An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century, translated by Charles Perry.]
Conyngys in graueye. Take Conyngys, and make hem clene, and hakke hem in gobettys, and sethe hem, other larde hem and Rost hem; and thanne hakke hem, and take Almaundys, and grynde hem, and temper hem vppe with gode Freysshe brothe of Flesshe, and coloure it wyth Safroun, and do ther-to a porcyon of flowre of Rys, and do ther-to then pouder Gyngere, Galyngale, Canel, Sugre, Clowys, Maces, and boyle it onys and sethe it; then take the Conyngys, and putte ther-on, and dresse it and serue it forth. [Harleian MS 279, date ca. 1420]
It is usually said that gravé is a non-word created as a mistranscription of grané, a similar mixture with which it is indeed conflated in French manuscripts. Grané is usually supposed to be from Medieval Latin granatum “corned, grained” but this is unattested in the context of this sauce. It is as likely in this case to be from "Granada" (see Granada.)
There may have been a second word, combined through folk-etymology, that led to the secondary sense of "juice of cooked meat." Perhaps Old French engravee "carved, sliced" or Old English greofa, an oil-pan (related to greaves, 1610s, "fibrous matter cooked out of animal fat.")
In Middle English the word grave is glossed against Latin garus, "a type of fish used for making sauce" and promulada, probably from promulsis, an old appetizer of eggs and fish. The sense of broths or drippings appears to originally be of fishes, then soon extended to meat drippings or gelatin, which sense grows dominant in English from mid-15c, though still used most typically of fish or other seafood till 16c.
As "a sauce made with meat drippings," 1670s, originally sauce gravy or gravy sauce. Applied to vegetarian mixtures by 1875. The meaning "tomato sauce" (chiefly Italian-American) is by 1978, evidently from certain Italian dialects differentiating tomato puree (salsa, "sauce") from the cooked tomato sauce (sugo, translated "gravy" in many 19c. and 20c. Italian-English dictionaries, or ragu, etc.)
The meaning "money easily acquired" is attested by 1910; gravy train (by 1899) as something lucrative or productive is said to have been originally railroad slang for a short haul that paid well. Gravy-boat "small, deep dish for holding gravy or sauce" is from 1827.
