sere

Meanings

Adjective

• Without moisture; dry.
• Of thoughts, etc.: barren, fruitless.
• Of fabrics: threadbare, worn out.
• Individual, separate, set apart.
• Different; diverse.

Noun

• 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.
• A claw, a talon.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• hydrosere
• lithosere
• psammosere

Origin

• From Middle English ser, sere, seare, seer, seere, seir, seyr, from Old English sēar, sīere, from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz ("dry, parched"), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂sews-, *sh₂ews-. Cognate with Dutch zoor ("dry and coarse"), Greek αὖος ("dry"), Lithuanian sausas ("dry"), Middle Low German sôr (Low German soor ("arid, dry")), Old Church Slavonic suχŭ ("dry"),. sear, and sare.
• From Latin serere, present active infinitive of serō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- ("to bind, tie together; to thread").
• From Old French serre (modern French serre ("talon")), from serrer (modern French serrer ("to squeeze; to tighten")), from Vulgar Latin serrāre ("to close, shut"), from Late Latin serāre, present active infinitive of serō, from sera, from serō; see further at etymology 2.
• From Middle English ser, sere, schere, seer, seere, seir, seyr, seyre, from Old Norse sér ("for oneself; separately"), from sik, from Proto-Germanic *sek ("oneself"), from Proto-Indo-European *swé ("self"). The English word is cognate with Danish sær ("singular"), især, 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").