E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Sell.
A saddle. “Vaulting ambition … o’erleaps its sell” (Macbeth, i. 7). (Latin, sella; French, selle.) Window sill is the Anglo-Saxon syl (a basement).
1
“He left his loftie steed with golden sell.”
Spenser: Faërie Queene, ii. 2.
Sell, sold. Made a captive, as a purchased slave. St. Paul says he was “sold under sin” (Rom. vii. 14). (Anglo-Saxon, sell-an, to give.)
2
A sell. A “do,” a deception, a “takein.” Street vendors who take in the unwary with catchpennies, chuckle like hens when they have laid an egg, “Sold again, and got the money!”
