FromMiddle Englishser,sere,seare,seer,seere,seir,seyr(“dry, withered; emaciated, shrivelled; brittle; bare; dead, lifeless; barren, useless”),[1] fromOld Englishsēar,sīere(“dry, withered; barren; sere”),[2] fromProto-West Germanic*sauʀ(ī), fromProto-Germanic*sauzaz(“dry, parched”), fromProto-Indo-European*h₂sews-,*sh₂ews-(“to be dry”).
Cognate withDutchzoor(“dry and coarse”),Greekαὖος(aûos,“dry”),Lithuaniansausas(“dry”),Middle Low Germansôr (Low Germansoor(“arid, dry”)),Old Church Slavonicсоухъ(suχŭ,“dry”).[2]Doublet ofsear andsare.
sere (comparativeserer,superlativeserest)
- (archaic or literary, poetic) Withoutmoisture;dry.
- Synonyms:(Britain, archaic)sare,sear;see alsoThesaurus:dry
1810,Walter Scott, “Canto III. The Gathering.”, inThe Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] forJohn Ballantyne and Co.; London:Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, andWilliam Miller,→OCLC, stanza XVI,page118:The autumn winds rushing / Waft the leaves that aresearest, / But our flower was in flushing, / When blighting was nearest.
1868,Henry Lonsdale, “The Græmes, Grames, or Grahams of the Borders”, inThe Worthies of Cumberland. The Right Honourable SirJ[ames] R[obert] G[eorge] Graham, Bart. of Netherby, London:George Routledge & Sons, […],→OCLC,page 1:[T]he recitation of Border Minstrelsy, or a well-sung ballad, served to revive thesere and yellow leaf of age by their refreshing memories of the pleasurable past.
1905,Vernon Lee [pseudonym; Violet Paget],The Enchanted Woods and Other Essays on the Genius of Places, London, New York, N.Y.:John Lane,→OCLC, page314:Perhaps it is the scant, delicate detail revealing finer lines, which thus turns corners of Tuscany into an imaginary Hellas. Or perhaps the mere sunny austerity of these rockysere places, the twitter of birds telling of renewed life, suggesting what, to us, seem the homes of the world's happy youth.
1979,Pintíg: Sa Malamig Na Bakal: Lifepulse in Cold Steel: Poems and Letters from Philippine Prisons, Hong Kong: Resource Centre for Philippine Concerns,→OCLC, page28:[…] a blighted land / More wasted,serer than before.
1984,Vernor Vinge, “The Peace War”, inStanley Schmidt, editor,Analog Science Fiction and Fact, volume104, New York, N.Y.: Davis Publications,→ISSN,→OCLC, chapter 37, page47, column 2:Except for their crawlers, and a crow flickering past in the mist, nothing moved: the grass wassere and golden, the dirt beneath white and gravelly.
- (archaic or literary, poetic) Of thoughts, etc.:barren,fruitless.
- (obsolete) Offabrics:threadbare,worn out.
1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, inLyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published1798,→OCLC, part V,page27:The roaring wind! it roar'd far off, / It did not come anear; / But with its sound it shook the sails / That were so thin andsere.
without moisture
—see alsodryFromLatinserere,presentactiveinfinitive ofserō(“to entwine, interlace, link together; to join in a series, string together”),[3] ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*ser-(“to bind, tie together; to thread”).
sere (pluralseres)
- (ecology) Anaturalsuccession ofanimal orplantcommunities in anecosystem, especially aseries of communitiessucceeding one another from thetime ahabitat isunoccupied to thepoint when aclimax community isachieved.[from early 20th c.]
- Synonym:seral community
1980 August, Douglas C. Andersen, James A. MacMahon, Michael L. Wolfe, “Herbivorous Mammals along a Montane Sere: Community Structure and Energetics”, inJournal of Mammology[1], volume61, number 3, Baltimore, Md.:American Society of Mammalogists,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on21 July 2018,page501:We examined one of severalseres found in the middle Rocky Mountains that progress from a subalpine or montane forb-dominated meadow to a climax forest dominated by Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii).
1988 December, Walter F. Mueggler, “Approach”, inAspen Community Types of the Intermountain Region (General Technical Report;INT-250), Ogden, Ut.: Intermountain Research Station,Forest Service,United States Department of Agriculture,→OCLC,page 5, column 1:[C]ommunity types may represent either climax plant associations or successional communities within asere.
2007, Thomas J. Stohlgren, “History and Background, Baggage and Direction”, inMeasuring Plant Diversity: Lessons from the Field, Oxford:Oxford University Press,→ISBN, part I (The Past and Present),page31:[S]ome communities persisted as repeating early successionalseres ("disclimaxes"), while climax communities could contain small areas of differentsere communities.
natural succession of animal or plant communities
FromOld Frenchserre (modernFrenchserre(“talon”)), fromserrer(“to grip tightly; to shut”) (modernFrenchserrer(“to squeeze; to tighten”)), fromVulgar Latinserrāre(“to close, shut”), fromLate Latinserāre,presentactiveinfinitive ofserō(“to fasten with a bolt; to bar, bolt”), fromsera(“bar for fastening doors”), fromserō(“to bind or join together; entwine, interlace, interweave, plait”);see further atetymology 2.[4]
sere (pluralseres)
- (obsolete) Aclaw, atalon.
[1611?],Homer, “Book XIX”, inGeo[rge] Chapman, transl.,The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter,→OCLC; republished asThe Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London:Charles Knight and Co., […],1843,→OCLC,page149:Her [Minerva's]seres struck through Achilles' tent, and closely she instill'd / Heaven's most-to-be-desired feast to his great breast, and fill'd / His sinews with that sweet supply, for fear unsavoury fast / Should creep into his knees.- The spelling has been modernized.
FromMiddle Englishser,sere,schere,seer,seere,seir,seyr,seyre(“different; diverse, various; distinct, individual; parted, separated; many, several”),[5] fromOld Norsesér(“for oneself; separately”,dative reflexive pronoun, literally“to oneself”), fromsik(“oneself, myself, yourself, herself, himself; ourselves, yourselves, themselves”),[6] fromProto-Germanic*sek(“oneself”), fromProto-Indo-European*swé(“self”). The English word is cognate withDanishsær(“singular”),især(“especially, particularly”),Germansich(“oneself; herself, himself, itself; themselves”),Icelandicsig(“oneself; herself, himself, itself; themselves”),Latinsē(“herself, himself, itself; themselves”),Scotsseir,Swedishsär(“particularly”).[6]
sere (comparativemoresere,superlativemostsere)
- (obsolete or British, dialectal)Individual,separate,set apart.
1544 (date written; published1571),Roger Ascham,Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe,→OCLC; republished inThe English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] andJ[ames] Dodsley, […], andJ[ohn] Newbery, […],1761,→OCLC, book 2,page137:Therefore I have ſeene good ſhooters [archers] which would have for everye bowe aſere caſe, made of wullen clothe, and then you maye putte three or four of them ſo caſed, into a lether caſe if you will.
- (obsolete or British, dialectal)Different;diverse.
1910, James Prior, “Bishoped Porridge”, inFortuna Chance, London:Constable & Co. Ltd.,→OCLC,page316:Thou wert well-nee moidered [footnote: Distracted.] wi' me, I know, but it thou'd telled me, Mary, I mun do better or else we mun goo oursere-ways [footnote: Different ways.], belike I should a done better. I'm nobbut a mon, Mary, a lundy day-tale mon [footnote: Clumsy day-labourer.].
- ^“sēr(e,adj.(1)”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007, retrieved28 April 2019.
- ↑2.02.1“sere, sear,adj.1”, inOED Online
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1912;“sere1,adj.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022. - ^“sere,n.2”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1986;“sere2,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
- ^“† sere,n.1”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1912.
- ^“sẹ̄r(e,adj.(2)”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007, retrieved28 April 2019.
- ↑6.06.1“sere,adv. andadj.2”, inOED Online, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1912.
sere
- third-personsingularpresentindicative ofsrát
FromLate Latinsēra, from ellipsis ofLatinsēradiēs, fromsērus(“late”). CompareItaliansera,Venetanséra,Romanschsaira,seira,Romanianseară,Frenchsoir.
sere f (pluralseris)
- evening
FromFrenchserrer.
sere
- tighten,squeeze
sere
- tight
sere f
- plural ofsera
Form of the verbserō(“I sow or plant”).
sere
- second-personsingularpresentactiveimperative ofserō
Form of the verbserō(“I join or weave”).
sere
- second-personsingularpresentactiveimperative ofserō
Form ofsērus.
sēre
- vocativemasculinesingular ofsērus
FromLatinesse(“to be”). The present subjunctive is influenced byLatinsedeō(“sit”) (present infinitivesedēre).
sere
- tobe
FromOld Dutchsēro. Equivalent tosêer +-e.
sêre
- strongly,very, to agreatdegree
- hard,forcefully
- fast, withspeed
FromOld Englishsēar, fromProto-West Germanic*sauʀ(ī).Doublet ofsor(“sorrel”).
sere
- (especially referring to plants)dry,withered,shrunken,brittle
- (of thoughts, etc.)barren,fruitless
Borrowed fromOld Norsesér, dative ofsik, fromProto-Germanic*siz, dative and instrumental of*sek, fromProto-Indo-European*swé(“self”).
sere
- Individual,separate,set apart.
- Different;diverse.
1430–1440, “XXII. The Smythis. The Temptation of Jesus.”, inLucy Toulmin Smith, editor,York Plays: The Plays Performed by the Crafts or Mysteries of York on the Day of Corpus Christi in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries: […] (overall work in Middle English), Oxford: At theClarendon Press, published1885,→OCLC,page183, lines151–156:Be-halde now, ser, and þou schalt see, /Sere kyngdomes andsere contre; / Alle þis wile I giffe to þe / for euer more, / And þou falle and honour me, / as I saide are.- Behold now, sir, and thou shalt see, /Different kingdoms anddifferent country; / All this will I give to thee / forever more, / And thou fall and honour me, / As I said ere.
- Numerous,many,copious.
sere
- Separately,severally.
1430–1440, “II. Playsterers. The Creation, to the Fifth Day.”, inLucy Toulmin Smith, editor,York Plays: The Plays Performed by the Crafts or Mysteries of York on the Day of Corpus Christi in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries: […] (overall work in Middle English), Oxford: At theClarendon Press, published1885,→OCLC,page 9, lines17–20:Þe water I will set / to flowe bothe fare and nere, / And þhan þe firmament, / in mydis to set þamesere.- The water I will set / to flow both far and near, / And then the firmament, / in their midst to set themseparately.
sere
- Alternative form ofsure
From*serde, fromProto-Iranian*carHdáh (>sal(“year”)) +-e(“noun forming suffix”). Comparesalî(“old, aged”), used when askinghow old.
sere (Arabic spellingسەرە)
- (of people)old,aged,elderly,senior
- Synonyms:kal,mezin,pîr
- Antonyms:cahil,ciwan,naşî,xort
- Chyet, Michael L. (2020) “sere”, inFerhenga Birûskî: Kurmanji–English Dictionary (Language Series; 2), volume 2, London: Transnational Press,page236
(Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium.)
-séré
- eight
sere (definite accusativesereyi,pluralsereler)
- (informal) a measure of distance, being the span, when spreading one’s fingers, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the index finger.
- “sere”, inTurkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
Related toPersianسر(sar).
sere
- (anatomy)head
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1912;“sere1,adj.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
sere (ecology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia