Seed

noun SEED siːd

Also spelled siid, seed

Besides the plant seed, in Patois 'seed' means one's offspring — a child, as the 'seed' of a parent. 'Him seed' means his child or children, and the word can also stand for a whole family line or one's descendants, appearing in expressions about carrying on the bloodline and leaving 'seed' behind. It casts children as the fruit and continuation of the parent, and it belongs to the deep Jamaican concern with family, lineage, and the passing-on of one's blood, naming the child as the living seed of those who came before.

  • Dat a fi him seed, di likeness plain.

    That's his child, the resemblance is plain.

  • She mind har seed good.

    She provides for her children well.

  • Him leave plenty seed behind.

    He left plenty of offspring behind.

From 'seed' (that which reproduces), an old and biblical sense of offspring/descendants, kept alive in Patois.

Means offspring/child(ren) ('him seed'); also literal seed. Compare 'pickney', 'wash-belly'.