Etymology: Cognate with Old Saxon sīc (only in sīc-uarh , literally ‘wallow pig’; Middle Low German sīk wet ground, marshy hollow, pool, German regional (Low German) sike , sik ) and the Scandinavian forms cited at sike n.¹, and apparently further cognate with (with different ablaut grade) Middle Dutch seiken (Dutch zeiken ), Middle Low German sēken , seiken , Old High German seihhen (Middle High German seichen , German regional seichen ), all in the sense ‘to urinate’; further etymology uncertain and disputed (perhaps ultimately related to the Germanic base of sye v.¹, but this poses phonological problems). Compare post-classical Latin sicum , sicus , sica (also occasionally spelt sich- ) ditch, stream (frequently in British sources from the second half of the 12th cent.) and Anglo-Norman siche (rare; 13th cent. or earlier); both < English. Compare sike n.¹Attestation in Germanic. The word is also attested in other Germanic languages as a place-name element denoting watercourses or places with marshy ground, and place-name evidence may imply earlier and somewhat more widespread currency in the continental West Germanic languages; compare discussion in J. Udolph Namenkundliche Studien zum Germanenproblem (1994) 401–12. Form history. In Old English usually a strong neuter (sīc ); however, a strong masculine by-form (sīce ) is also attested. Forms in -ch- , attested from Middle English onwards, reflect palatalization and assibilation of the original velar plosive in Old English, assumed to be present in the Old English forms (compare rare Old English sicc and also forms of ditch n.¹, riche n.) but not usually distinguished in spelling until the Middle English period. The lack of assibilation in forms of sike n.¹ (the characteristic northern reflex of Old English sīc ) may partly reflect analogical levelling within the paradigm from forms in which assibilation perhaps did not take place before a back vowel and partly the influence of the early Scandinavian cognate. Currency of post-classical Latin sicum , etc. partly reflects currency of sike n.¹ Compare also Middle English sichet , Older Scots siket , both in the sense ‘small stream’ and only attested in a Latin context, and post-classical Latin sicetum , sicetus , siceta (also spelt sichet- ) small ditch or stream, (small) field (frequently in British sources from the first half of the 12th cent.), Anglo-Norman sikette , siket ditch (13th cent. or earlier), which reflect a diminutive formation from this stem (compare -et suffix¹). Place names and surnames. Beside the characteristic attestation as the name of streams and in place names and boundary markers (compare senses 1a and 2), sitch n.¹ is also frequently attested in early local surnames, as Ralph de Sich (1166), Richard del Siche (1298), John atte Siche (1327), etc., especially in the west midlands. N.E.D. (1911) gives the pronunciation as (sitʃ) /sɪtʃ/.

Etymology: Shortened < situation n. Compare earlier sit n.²