severus

According to De Vaan, from Proto-Italic *seɣwēros, from a collective derivation of the noun Proto-Indo-European *seǵʰwr̥, from Proto-Indo-European *seǵʰ- (“to hold”).[1]

Other etymologists, such as Meiser, posit this word to be from se- + verus, but De Vaan notes a heavy semantic mismatch.[1]

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /seˈweː.rus/, [sɛˈweː.rʊs]

sevērus (feminine sevēra, neuter sevērum); first/second declension

1. severe, serious, grave in demeanor

First/second declension.

• sevēritās
• sevēritūdō
• assevērō

• French: sévère
• English: severe
• Italian: severo
• Spanish: severo, severa

• severus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• severus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• severus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be brought up under strict discipline: severa disciplina contineri
    
  • a stern critic of morals: severus morum castigator
    
  • to be a strict disciplinarian in one's household: severum imperium in suis exercere, tenere (De Sen. 11. 37)
    
• severus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• severus in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• severe in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.