Etymologically
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serious

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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