sere
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /sɪə/
- (US) IPA(key): /sɪ(ə)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][3] from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz (“dry, parched”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂sews-, *sh₂ews- (“to be dry”). The English word is cognate with Dutch zoor (“dry and coarse”), Greek αὖος (aὖos, “dry”), Lithuanian sausas (“dry”), Middle Low German sôr (Low German soor (“arid, dry”)), Old Church Slavonic suχŭ (suχŭ, “dry”),[2] and is a doublet of sear.
Adjective
sere (comparative serer, superlative serest)
- (archaic or literary, poetic) Without moisture; dry.
- Synonyms: sear; see also Thesaurus:dry
- 1810, Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake; a Poem, Edinburgh: Printed [by James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, OCLC 6632529, canto III (The Gathering), 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 931352891, 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 752991460, 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.
- 1984, Vernor Vinge, “The Peace War”, in Stanley Schmidt, editor, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, volume 104, New York, N.Y.: Davis Publications, ISSN 1059-2113, OCLC 1002313358, 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.
- (obsolete) Of fabrics: threadbare, worn out.
- 1797–1798, [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: Printed for J. & A. Arch, […], published 1798, OCLC 1071922407, 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.
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Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
From Latin serēre (“to join one after another”),[3][4] from serō (“to bind or join together; entwine, interlace, interweave, plait”), 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 0022-2372, OCLC 1097268763, 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 25967910, 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
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.[5]
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: Printed for Nathaniell Butter, OCLC 614803194; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […] In Two Volumes, volume I, new edition, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, OCLC 987451361, 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.
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Etymology 4
From Middle English ser, sere, schere, seer, seere, seir, seyr, seyre (“different; diverse, various; distinct, individual; parted, separated; many, several”),[6] from Old Norse sér (“for oneself; separately”, dative reflexive pronoun, literally “to oneself”), from sik (“oneself, myself, yourself, herself, himself; ourselves, yourselves, themselves”),[7] 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”).[7]
Adjective
sere (comparative more sere, superlative most sere)
- (obsolete or Britain, dialectal) Individual, separate, set apart.
- 1571, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. Contayned in II Bookes. […], imprinted at London, […]: By Thomas Marshe, OCLC 932903701; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: Printed for R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, OCLC 642424485, 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.
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- (obsolete or Britain, dialectal) Different; diverse.
- [1430–1440, “XXII. The Smythis. The Temptation of Jesus.”, in Lucy 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: […] (in Middle English), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, published 1885, OCLC 28074724, lines 151–156, page 183:
- Be-halde now, ser, and þou schalt see, / Sere kyngdomes and sere 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 and different country; / All this will I give to thee / forever more, / And thou fall and honour me, / As I said ere.]
- 1910, James Prior, “Bishoped Porridge”, in Fortuna Chance, London: Constable & Co. Ltd., OCLC 61856236, 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.].
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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. - “sere” (US) / “sere” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.
- “sere, n.2”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986. - “† 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
Czech
Friulian
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈseː.re], /ˈsere/
- Hyphenation: sé‧re
Kurdish
Latin
Etymology 1
Form of the verb serō (“I sow or plant”).
Etymology 2
Form of the verb serō (“I join or weave”).
Etymology 3
Form of sērus.
Leonese
Conjugation
infinitive | sere | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
gerund | siendu | ||||||
participle | m síu, f sida, m pl sios, f pl sidas | ||||||
person | first singular you |
second singular tú |
third singular él/eilla/eillu |
first plural nosoutros/as |
second plural vosoutros/as |
third plural eillos/as | |
indicative | present | sou | yes | ye | somos | sóis, sodes |
son |
imperfect | yera | yeras | yera | yéramos | yerais, yérades |
yeran | |
preterite | fui | fuisti | fou | fuimos | fuistis, fuistedes |
fonun | |
pluperfect | fuera | fueras | fuera | fuéramos | fuérais, fuérades |
fueran | |
future | sedréi | sedrás | sedrá | sedremos | sedréis, sedredes |
sedrán | |
conditional | sedría | sedrías | sedría | sedríamos | sedríais, sedríades |
sedrían | |
subjunctive | present | seya | seyas | seya | seyamos | seyáis, seyades |
seyan |
imperfect | fuera | fueras | fuera | fuéramos | fuerais, fuérades |
fueran | |
imperative | — | sé | — | — | séi | — |
Middle Dutch
Descendants
- Dutch: zeer
- Limburgish: zieër
Middle English
Etymology 1
From Old English sēar, from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz. Doublet of sor (“sorrel”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sɛːr/
Descendants
- English: sear
References
- “sēr(e (adj.(1))” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-26.
Etymology 2
From Old French seür.
Turkish
Alternative forms
Noun
sere (definite accusative sereyi, plural sereler)
- (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.