A container with small holes used to separate fine particles from larger ones, like straining flour or sand.
From Old English 'sife,' possibly related to Latin 'setum' meaning 'bristle,' referring to the original sieves made with animal hair or plant fibers.
Sieves are ancient technology—Egyptians used them 4,000 years ago—and they're still used identically because the principle is so fundamentally perfect: gravity plus holes equals separation, which is why the design barely changed in millennia.
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