Sequester comes from Latin sequestrare ('to give up for safekeeping, set aside'), from sequester ('a depositary, mediator, trustee'), itself from sequi ('to follow'). The historical chain includes Latin sequestrare and Latin sequester. Older glosses in the chain include "to give up for safekeeping, set aside", "a depositary, mediator, trustee", and "to follow", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, sequester is best read as borrowing, yielding an English verb shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a verb, with the sense "to isolate or set apart; to seize property temporarily by law". English derivatives include sequestered, sequestration, and sequesterable; related forms include sequestrate and sequestrum. The result is an English verb whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.