Wondrous Words Wednesday
My word this week is sere. I found it in Quatrain by Sharon Shinn:
He emerged from the darkness of the tunnel into a sere and broken landscape.
According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1979), there are two definitions with two separate roots. The adjective form, describing the above landscape, is from the Greek word for dry and it means “withered.”
Sere can also be used as a noun. In that case, the root is the Latin word for series and the definition is: “a series of ecological communities that succeed one another in the biotic development of an area or formation.”
Have you learned any new words recently?
Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Bermudaonion’s Weblog. Kathy says: “Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading.”
Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
I use sere when I play Boggle and have never really thought about what it means. Thanks for straightening me out.
This is a new word for me today.
http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/04/wondrous-words-wednesday_25.html
This one’s new to me too. It’s amazing to me how many words I don’t know. lol
Hi Joy!
It seems amazing that I don’t know such a short word – only 4 letters! But, I did not know this one. 🙂 If I were reading that, I might mistake it for seared, I think.
The second definition is interesting…like when a meadow becomes a forest…
That was the reaction I had when I read the word. How can I not know this 4-letter word? I read it several times before I convinced myself that I didn’t know it. LOL!
That’s a new one for me, and one I definitely can use. Thanks, Joy!
Hi Joy, You completely threw me with this one! Thanks for the new word. I can hardly wait to use it on a waiter. “Pardon me but the chicken is a little sere” Would that be right?
Interesting definitions for such a little word. Interesting that the two definitions are so far apart too.
Hi Joy,
What an intresting word. I have never used it before, as I didn’t know that it was a word, let alone what it meant.
I always assumed that the only spelling of the word was ‘seer’, which obviously means something completely different (A clairvoyant, prophet, oracle, or diviner).
I learnt something new today, but not sure when I am ever likely to drop it casually into a conversation.
Yvonne
Sere is a new word for me too. It’s one I could use I think. I like the sound of it.