Etymologically
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sera

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈsɛ.ra][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈsɛː.ra][1]

Forms

sera f (genitive serae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is perhaps from serō “to join, bind”, compare instrument nouns such as serra and traha.[2][1][3] Köbler traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to line up, bind”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Plautus, of a door bar.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a detachable bar put across a door to fasten it, not fixed to the door, and Varro speaks of doors opening when it is removed.[2][3] Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic and absent from Cicero.[3] Ovid and Petronius use it more widely of a lock or bolt, and Columella of the rail of a post-and-rail fence.[5][2] Döderlein explains that sera is a movable bolt put on the door, claustrum one fastened to it.[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a bolt, bar.[7] Wiktionary connects Italian saracinesca “portcullis” with it, with doubt.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a door bar.[2][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a removable bar.[3][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a bolt.[5][4]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a fence rail.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A movable bar across a door; a bolt, lock.[2][5]
  2. The rail of a fence.[2]

Usage notes

In Medieval Latin a different sēra, from sērus “late”, meant evening, and the west.[8][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill