serious

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈsɪə.ri.əs/, US /ˈsɪr.i.əs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English seryows, borrowed from Middle French sérieux (“grave, earnest”) and directly borrowed from Late Latin sēriōsus,^[2][3][4] from Latin sērius (“weighty, important, grave”),^[3][2] used only of things in classical Latin.^[4][5] Latin sērius is probably related to Old English swǣr (“heavy, sad”), German schwer (“heavy, difficult”) and Lithuanian sverti (“to weigh, lift”),^[6][5][7] from Proto-Indo-European *sehro- (“slow, heavy”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Earnest, solemn: 1440, seryows, in the Promptorium Parvulorum,^[2] or about 1440 in the OED.^[8] Etymonline records an earlier sense, “arranged in sequence”, in the early 15th century; the Middle English Compendium explains that the Latin stems of series and sērius seem to have fallen together in Medieval Latin.^[3]

Semantic evolution

“Requiring earnest thought, important” is from 1531,^[8][9] and “grave in demeanour” from 1613.^[8] “In earnest, not jesting” is from 1712^[3] or 1590.^[8] In the late 18th and early 19th centuries serious also meant “earnest about religion”, from 1796, and was cited as cant.^[8] Of music and drama, “dealing with grave matters”, it is by 1762.^[3] “Attended with danger, giving cause for alarm”, as in a serious illness, is from 1800.^[3] Serious-minded is by 1653.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – earnest, solemn.^[8][2]
• 1531 – important.^[8]
• 1613 – grave in demeanour.^[8]
• 1712 – not jesting.^[3]
• 1762 – of music and drama.^[3]
• 1796 – religious.^[8]
• 1800 – dangerous.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Grave in manner or quality; solemn.
2. Sincere, in earnest; not joking.
3. Requiring careful thought; important.
4. Causing concern; dangerous: a serious illness.
5. Deeply involved or interested: a serious musician.

Word family

• seriously
• seriousness
• nonserious
• overserious
• semiserious
• serious-minded
• superserious

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares serious with sober, grave, solemn, earnest, sedate and staid.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin