sear
see also: Sear
Pronunciation Etymology 1
Sear
Etymology
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
see also: Sear
Pronunciation Etymology 1
From Middle English sere, seer, seere, from Old English sēar, sīere ("dry, sere, sear, withered, barren"), from Proto-West Germanic *sauʀ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂ews- (also reconstructed as *h₂sews-).
Cognate with Dutch zoor, Low German soor, German sohr, dialectal Norwegian søyr, Lithuanian saũsas, Homeric Ancient Greek αὖος. Doublet of sere and sare.
Adjectivesear (comparative searer, superlative searest)
- Dry; withered, especially of vegetation.
- 1620 January 17 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Newes from the New World Discover'd in the Moon. A Masque, […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio), London: […] Richard Meighen, published 1640–1641, →OCLC ↗, page 42 ↗:
- There are in all but three vvayes of going thither [to the moon]. […] [The] third, Old Empedocles vvay; vvho vvhen he leaped into Ætna, having a drie ſeare bodie, and light, the ſmoake took him and vvhift him up into the Moone, vvhere he lives yet vvaving up and dovvne like a feather, all foot and embers comming out of that cole-pit; our Poet met him, and talkt vvith him.
- 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.
From Middle English seren, seeren, from Old English sēarian, from Proto-West Germanic *sauʀēn; compare also Proto-Germanic *sauzijaną.
Verbsear (sears, present participle searing; simple past and past participle seared)
- (transitive) To char, scorch, or burn the surface of (something) with a hot instrument.
- To wither; to dry up.
- (transitive, figurative) To make callous or insensible.
- (transitive, figurative) To mark permanently, as if by burning.
- The events of that day were seared into her memory.
- French: (cooking) saisir, griller, brûler, calciner, marquer
- German: ausbrennen, versengen, scharf anbraten, ausdörren, verbrennen, austrocknen, einbrennen
- Italian: rosolare, bruciacchiare, fare passare al salto
- Portuguese: queimar, chamuscar, tostar
- Russian: прижигать
- Spanish: chamuscar
sear (plural sears)
Translations- Russian: ожо́г
Sear
Etymology
Variant of Sayer.
Proper nounThis text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
