Unseeling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To instigate a change from purity to corruption in a person
2. To make someone experience a moral or spiritual decline from a state of innocence
3. To bring about a change in a person's character that leads away from their original purity

Etymology: "Unseeling" is the present participle of "unseel," a verb meaning to strip away someone's innocence or, more literally, to remove the blindfold of a hawk. The root is "seel," which traces back to Old English "sǣl," meaning happiness, good fortune, or a favourable time. Its Proto-Germanic ancestor, "sēlis," carried the same sense, so the prefix "un-" reverses a word once tied to well-being and luck. The sense of "seel" as a stitched-shut eyelid comes from a separate verb, "seel" meaning to sew up the eyelids of a bird, drawn from Latin "cilium" (eyelid). The Middle English "unsele" meant misfortune or wretchedness, and "unseel" inherited that negative sense. Over time it came to describe the loss of innocence, the moment someone's naivety is taken away.