serenity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English serenite,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French serenité,^[2][3][4] now sérénité,^[5][3] and directly borrowed from Latin serēnitās (“clearness, serenity”),^[3][6][7] from serēnus (“clear, fair”),^[4][8] the source of serene, with the suffix that gives English -ity.^[7][8][5] The OED treats the word as a borrowing from French.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Middle English the word meant both clear, fair weather and a title given to a king or other high personage; the MED's first quotations, both from about 1450, show the title and the weather sense.^[2] Etymonline dates the weather sense to the mid-15th century.^[3] The OED's first quotation is for the title, from Richard Holland's Buke of the Howlat, composed about 1448.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The title copies Latin serēnitās, which was used of the Roman emperor and later of popes and bishops,^[5][3] and French sérénité was used the same way.^[5] The weather sense, clear and calm air and sky, is found in the OED from before 1538,^[5] and Johnson (1755) still gave "calmness" of weather first.^[9] From it the word was carried over to people: a cheerful tranquillity of mind or temper is recorded from 1599,^[5] or by the 1590s in Etymonline,^[3] and the calmness of conditions or affairs from 1641.^[5] Ruskin used it in 1849 for the look of repose in architecture.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – a title of honour for a king or prince.^[2][5]
• before 1460 – clear, fair weather.^[2] The OED's first quotation for this sense dates from before 1538.^[5]
• 1599 – calm, cheerful tranquillity of mind or temper.^[5]
• 1641 – peacefulness of conditions or affairs.^[5]
• 1849 – an appearance of repose, in Ruskin.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state or quality of being serene; calm, peace of mind, repose: She faced the bad news with remarkable serenity.^[10][7][5]
2. Clear, calm and fair weather; the stillness of air and sky.^[5][6]
3. (often capitalised) A title of honour given to some reigning princes and other dignitaries, used with His, Her or Your.^[10][7][6]

Related words

• serene

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins