seizure

Where it comes from

Seizure ordinarily means a sudden medical attack, or the act of taking possession by force or authority. Seizure was formed from seize plus the action-noun suffix -ure. Seize entered English as a legal term for taking possession, through Old French seisir; its still deeper Germanic source is uncertain. Seize broadened from possession to gripping physically and then to emotions, disease, or death suddenly taking hold.

How the meaning developed

Seizure consequently moved from taking property to a sudden attack of illness and eventually became the medical name for abnormal electrical activity in the brain.