14世纪晚期，sēden，意为“开花、繁荣；结籽”；15世纪中期，指“用种子播种（土地）”，来源于seed（名词）。
“去除种子”的意思出现在1904年。体育（最初指网球）相关的用法出现在1898年，源于“播种”某些选手名字的概念，以确保他们在比赛中不会早早相遇。这一名词用法在1924年得到了证实。
There is another question of tennis custom, if not tennis law, that has been agitated a good deal of late, and which still remains unsatisfactory, and this is the methods used in drawing the competitors in tournaments. The National Lawn Tennis Association prescribes no particular style for drawing. but the Bagnall-Wilde system is that used almost universally in open events. Several years ago, it was decided to "seed" the best players through the championship draw, and this was done for two or three years under protest from Dr. Dwight. ["Tennis Rules That Need Amendment," American Lawn Tennis, Jan. 13, 1898]
最近有一个关于网球习俗（如果不是网球规则的话）的问题引起了不少讨论，但至今仍未得到令人满意的答案，那就是在比赛中抽签选手的方法。美国国家草地网球协会并没有规定具体的抽签方式，但Bagnall-Wilde系统几乎在所有公开赛事中被普遍采用。几年前，决定在锦标赛抽签中“播种”最优秀的选手，这一做法在Dr. Dwight的抗议下持续了两三年。[“需要修订的网球规则”，《美国草地网球》，1898年1月13日]
相关词汇：Seeded；seeding。晚期古英语中有sædian，sedian。
