sereno

Forms

sereno (feminine serena, masculine plural serenos, feminine plural serenas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin serēnus (“clear, cloudless; calm”).^[2][3][4][1] The same word is Portuguese sereno, Galician sereo, Asturian serenu, Catalan serè, French serein and Italian sereno.^[5][6][7]

The noun “night dew” has a disputed origin.^[2][8] Diez and Bloch derived it from sērum (“late evening”), through a French form in ⟨-ain⟩; the Academy's dictionaries from 1884 to 2001 also gave the noun a separate entry from that Latin word.^{[2][9][10][2][9][10]} Corominas rejects this, since the dew falls all through the night and the word is popular all over the Romance area, and follows Meyer-Lübke in identifying it with the adjective: things are left out at night, and serenades are given, only when the night is clear.^[2][11] The DLE now treats all the senses as one word from the Latin adjective.^[4] Bénaben still calls the origin of the noun uncertain and connects it with the French noun for the evening dew.^[8]

De Vaan reconstructs *(k)serō- (“dry”), from *Kseh₁-ró- (“dry”), with the cognate Ancient Greek ξηρός (xērós, “dry”).^[12] The OLD calls the Greek comparison doubtful.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel lists the earliest records in the Libro de Alexandre (1230–1250).^[14] In Alfonso X's General estoria (1280) the sky clears after a sacrifice: el aer & el cielo claros & serenos, “the air and the sky clear and serene”.^[15] Corominas dates it from Juan Ruiz, who has dueña serena for a calm, gentle lady.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has meant “cloudless” and “calm” in every period.^[2] The phrase poner al sereno “to leave out in the open at night” is recorded from Nebrija (c. 1495).^[3] Out of it the noun came to mean, by 1611, the damp that falls on what is left outside.^[3][2] Percyvall in 1591 already glossed it “the evening dew”.^[16] Covarrubias described it as the air at nightfall, made damp by vapours rising from the ground.^[17]

The night watchman who walked the streets calling the hour and the weather appears in the Academy's dictionary of 1817;^[18] Corominas could only date this sense to the 19th century.^[18][2] Moliner describes the watchman as holding the keys of the street doors and opening them to residents who came home late.^[19] In the cant of 1609 sereno meant “shameless”.^[20] The sense “not drunk” is modern.^[4] In Ecuador a sereno is a serenade, in Peru a municipal night guard; in the Canaries, Colombia and Puerto Rico the word means a light drizzle.^[4][21][22]

Timeline

• 1230–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre, the first record in the DEMel.^[14]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it of a clear sky.^[15]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz, Corominas's first record, with the sense “calm”.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records serenar “to put out in the night air”.^[2][23]
• 1525 – Ruperto de Nola's cookery book: ponlos al sereno, “put them out in the night air”.^[2]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses sereno “the evening dew”.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the noun for the damp night air.^[17][3]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary first defines the night watchman.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the noun a separate entry, from Latin serum.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the sky or weather: clear, cloudless.^[4][1]
2. calm, serene, untroubled in body or mind: Habló con voz serena.^[4][1]
3. Of a person: sober, not under the influence of alcohol.^[4][1]

Noun

1. The damp that fills the air at night.^[4][1]
2. (chiefly historical, Spain) A night watchman who patrolled the streets to guard the neighbourhood and property.^[4][19]
3. (Ecuador) A serenade (serenata), music played at night in the open air for someone.^[4]
4. (Peru) A guard of the municipal night watch service (serenazgo).^[4]

Word family

• serenar
• serenidad
• serenísimo
• serenazgo

Related words

• Latin serēnus
• French serein

Usage notes

Al sereno (colloquially a la serena) means “out in the open at night”.^[4][2] The feminine noun serena is a troubadours' night song.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 220
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sereno
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sereno
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sereno
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 832
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. serein
8. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. sereno
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 971
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. sereno
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7843
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. serēnus
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. serēnus
14. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sereno
15. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. sereno
16. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 213
17. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1295
18. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 798
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sereno
20. ^ Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 199
21. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. sereno
22. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. sereno
23. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. sereno