sere

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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[edit]

sere (comparative serer, superlative serest)

  1. (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.
  2. (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
  3. (obsolete) Of fabrics: threadbare, worn out.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

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[edit]

sere (plural seres)

  1. (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[1], 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[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

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[edit]

sere (plural seres)

  1. (obsolete) A claw, a talon.

Etymology 4[edit]

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 (herself, himself, itself; themselves), Scots seir, Swedish sär (particularly).[6]

Adjective[edit]

sere (comparative more sere, superlative most sere)

  1. (obsolete or Britain, dialectal) Individual, separate, set apart.
  2. (obsolete or Britain, 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[edit]
Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ sēr(e, adj.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 28 April 2019.
  2. 2.0 2.1 sere, sear, adj.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1912; “sere1, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ sere, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1986; “sere2, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ † sere, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1912.
  5. ^ sẹ̄r(e, adj.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 28 April 2019.
  6. 6.0 6.1 sere, adv. and adj.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1912.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Czech[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

sere

  1. third-person singular present indicative of srát

Friulian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Late Latin sēra, from ellipsis of Latin sēra diēs, from sērus (late). Compare Italian sera, Venetian séra, Romansch saira, seira, Romanian seară, French soir.

Noun[edit]

sere f (plural seris)

  1. evening

Derived terms[edit]

Haitian Creole[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French serrer.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

sere

  1. tighten, squeeze

Adjective[edit]

sere

  1. tight

Italian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈse.re/
  • Rhymes: -ere
  • Hyphenation: sé‧re

Noun[edit]

sere f

  1. plural of sera

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Form of the verb serō (I sow or plant).

Verb[edit]

sere

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of serō

Etymology 2[edit]

Form of the verb serō (I join or weave).

Verb[edit]

sere

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of serō

Etymology 3[edit]

Form of sērus.

Adjective[edit]

sēre

  1. vocative masculine singular of sērus

Leonese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin esse (to be). The present subjunctive is influenced by Latin sedeō (sit) (present infinitive sedēre).

Verb[edit]

sere

  1. to be

Conjugation[edit]

References[edit]

Middle Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Dutch sēro. Equivalent to sêer +‎ -e.

Adverb[edit]

sêre

  1. strongly, very, to a great degree
  2. hard, forcefully
  3. fast, with speed

Descendants[edit]

  • Dutch: zeer
  • Limburgish: zieër

Further reading[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old English sēar, from Proto-West Germanic *sauʀ(ī). Doublet of sor (sorrel).

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

sere

  1. (especially referring to plants) dry, withered, shrunken, brittle
  2. (of thoughts, etc.) barren, fruitless
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Borrowed from Old Norse sér, dative of sik, from Proto-Germanic *siz, dative and instrumental of *sek, from Proto-Indo-European *swé (self).

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (adjective) IPA(key): /seːr/
  • (adverb) IPA(key): /ˈseːr(ə)/

Adjective[edit]

sere

  1. Individual, separate, set apart.
  2. Different; diverse.
  3. Numerous, many, copious.
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]

Adverb[edit]

sere

  1. Separately, severally.
References[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Adjective[edit]

sere

  1. Alternative form of sure

Northern Kurdish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

sere (Arabic spelling سەرە)

  1. (of people) old, aged, elderly, senior
    Synonyms: kal, mezin, pîr
    Antonyms: cahil, ciwan, naşî, xort

References[edit]

  • Chyet, Michael L. (2020), “sere”, in Ferhenga Birûskî: Kurmanji–English Dictionary (Language Series; 2), volume 2, London: Transnational Press, page 236

Shona[edit]

Shona cardinal numbers
 <  7 8 9  > 
    Cardinal : sere

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective[edit]

-séré

  1. eight

Inflection[edit]

Turkish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

sere (definite accusative sereyi, plural sereler)

  1. (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.

References[edit]

  • sere”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu

Zazaki[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Related to Persian سر (sar).

Noun[edit]

sere

  1. (anatomy) head