sere
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Appendix:Variations of "sere"
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /sɪə/
Audio (Received Pronunciation): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /sɪ(ə)ɹ/
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
- Homophone: seer
Etymology 1
From Middle English ser, sere, seare, seer, seere, seir, seyr (“dry, withered; emaciated, shrivelled; brittle; bare; dead, lifeless; barren, useless”),[1] from Old English sēar, sīere (“dry, withered; barren; sere”),[2] from Proto-West Germanic *sauʀ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz (“dry, parched”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂sews-, *sh₂ews- (“to be dry”).
Cognate with Dutch zoor (“dry and coarse”), Greek αὖος (aûos, “dry”), Lithuanian sausas (“dry”), Middle Low German sôr (Low German soor (“arid, dry”)), Old Church Slavonic suχŭ (“dry”).[2] Doublet of sear and sare.
Adjective
sere (comparative serer, superlative serest)
- (archaic or literary, poetic) Without moisture; dry.
- Synonyms: (Britain, archaic) sare, sear; see also Thesaurus:dry
- 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto III. The Gathering.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza XVI, page 118:
- The autumn winds rushing / Waft the leaves that are searest, / But our flower was in flushing, / When blighting was nearest.
- 1868, Henry Lonsdale, “The Græmes, Grames, or Grahams of the Borders”, in The Worthies of Cumberland. The Right Honourable Sir J[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 the sere 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, page 314:
- 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 rocky sere 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, page 28:
- […] a blighted land / More wasted, serer than before.
- 1984, Vernor Vinge, “The Peace War”, in Stanley Schmidt, editor, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, volume 104, New York, N.Y.: Davis Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, chapter 37, page 47, column 2:
- Except for their crawlers, and a crow flickering past in the mist, nothing moved: the grass was sere and golden, the dirt beneath white and gravelly.
- (archaic or literary, poetic) Of thoughts, etc.: barren, fruitless.
- 1847, Edgar Allan Poe, Ulalume: A Ballad:
- Our talk had been serious and sober,
But our thoughts they were palsied and sere—
Our memories were treacherous and sere—
- (obsolete) Of fabrics: threadbare, worn out.
- 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC, part V, page 27:
- 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 and sere.
Derived terms
Translations
without moisture — see also dry
Etymology 2
From Latin serere, present active infinitive of serō (“to entwine, interlace, link together; to join in a series, string together”),[3] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, tie together; to thread”).
Noun
sere (plural seres)
- (ecology) A natural succession of animal or plant communities in an ecosystem, especially a series of communities succeeding one another from the time a habitat is unoccupied to the point when a climax community is achieved. [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”, in Journal of Mammology, volume 61, number 3, Baltimore, Md.: American Society of Mammalogists, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 July 2018, page 501:
- We examined one of several seres 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”, in Aspen 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 a sere.
- 2007, Thomas J. Stohlgren, “History and Background, Baggage and Direction”, in Measuring Plant Diversity: Lessons from the Field, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part I (The Past and Present), page 31:
- [S]ome communities persisted as repeating early successional seres ("disclimaxes"), while climax communities could contain small areas of different sere communities.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations
natural succession of animal or plant communities
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Etymology 3
From Old French serre (modern French serre (“talon”)), from serrer (“to grip tightly; to shut”) (modern French serrer (“to squeeze; to tighten”)), from Vulgar Latin serrāre (“to close, shut”), from Late Latin serāre, present active infinitive of serō (“to fasten with a bolt; to bar, bolt”), from sera (“bar for fastening doors”), from serō (“to bind or join together; entwine, interlace, interweave, plait”); see further at etymology 2.[4]
Noun
sere (plural seres)
- (obsolete) A claw, a talon.
- [1611?], Homer, “Book XIX”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC, page 149:
- 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.
Etymology 4
From Middle English ser, sere, schere, seer, seere, seir, seyr, seyre (“different; diverse, various; distinct, individual; parted, separated; many, several”),[5] from Old Norse sér (“for oneself; separately”, dative reflexive pronoun, literally “to oneself”), from sik (“oneself, myself, yourself, herself, himself; ourselves, yourselves, themselves”),[6] from Proto-Germanic *sek (“oneself”), from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”). The English word is cognate with Danish sær (“singular”), især (“especially, particularly”), German sich (“oneself; herself, himself, itself; themselves”), Icelandic sig (“oneself; herself, himself, itself; themselves”), Latin sē (“herself, himself, itself; themselves”), Scots seir, Swedish sär (“particularly”).[6]
Adjective
sere (comparative more sere, superlative most sere)
- (obsolete or British, dialectal) Individual, separate, set apart.
- 1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC, book 2, page 137:
- Therefore I have ſeene good ſhooters [archers] which would have for everye bowe a ſere 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”, in Fortuna Chance, London: Constable & Co. Ltd., →OCLC, page 316:
- 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 our sere-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.].
Alternative forms
Derived terms
References
- “sēr(e, adj.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 28 April 2019.
- “sere, sear, adj.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1912; “sere1, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. - “sere, n.2”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986; “sere2, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “† sere, n.1”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1912.
- “sẹ̄r(e, adj.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 28 April 2019.
- “sere, adv. and adj.2”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1912.
Further reading
sere (ecology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
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