sejare

From Old Swedish seghiare, seghare, säyare, from Middle Low German seyger, sēer, seyer, segger (“scale, balance, tower clock”), probably from Middle High German seigære (“scale, clock”). Possibly related to French essay (“attempt, test”), Italian saggio (“examination”), and Late Latin exagium (“weighing, weight, scale”). The balance in older tower clocks looked like the beam of a scale. Under the influence of the similar German term Zeiger (“indicator, hand of a clock”) it also has this meaning.

Compounds have been made with sejar-, sejare-, sejer-, and seger-. For example, seger-hus (in the 1660s) means "clock case".

sejare c

1. (dated) a sundial, a clock

   giöra en stoor Seijare som slår hwar Tijma

   to craft a large clock that strikes each hour

   efter vår sejare

   according to our telling of time (to our clock)

   rycka visaren och draga sejaren tillbaka

   to pull the hand and draw the clock back (to regret what was said, to "turn back time")

2. (dated) indicator of a sundial, hand of a clock

• sejare in Svenska Akademiens ordbok online.