serra
Pronunciation
Forms
serra f (genitive serrae); first declension[1]
Etymology
The origin is uncertain.[2][3] De Vaan's tentative reconstruction makes it inherited from Proto-Italic *sersā- (“saw”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sers-h2- (“cutting off”); within Latin the best connection he sees is with sāriō (“to hoe, weed”), which would point to a root *srs-.[4][3] Köbler leaves it unexplained,[5] and Lewis and Short thought it might stand for an older form of secō (“to cut”).[6]
Wiktionary compares a Celtic word for a sickle or billhook, but of a different origin.[1]
Earliest recorded meaning
De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Plautus,[4][5] in a fragment about cutting off limbs with a saw.[2][7]
Semantic evolution
The saw is its ordinary sense: Lucretius has a screeching saw, Cicero the noise of a saw, and Ovid tells of its invention.[6] Varro has the proverb serram dūcere cum aliquō, to draw the saw with someone, that is, to quarrel with them, which Tertullian echoes.[6][8][7]
By likeness it named a fish, perhaps the sawfish, in Pliny the Elder,[2][8] and a battle formation in Cato's treatise on warfare, which Festus explains as advancing and falling back without stopping.[2][6][7] Jerome and the Vulgate use it of a threshing sledge with toothed wheels.[8][7]
In medieval Latin, influenced by the verb serāre, “to shut”, it came to mean a mountain ridge (compare Spanish sierra), a mountain pass and a storehouse.[9][10] English sierra, a jagged range of mountains, is from the Spanish word.[3]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a saw.[2][5]
- 234–149 BC – Cato names a serrated battle formation with it.[2][6][5]
- 116–27 BC – Varro has the proverb serram dūcere, to quarrel.[6][7][5]
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a sea fish.[2][5]
- c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of a threshing sledge with toothed wheels.[8][7][5]
- 984 – A charter uses serrae for storehouses.[10][5]
- 1610s – English borrows Spanish sierra, from this word.[3]
Meanings
Noun
- A saw.[2][6]
- (in the phrase serram dūcere cum aliquō) To quarrel with someone.[2][6][7]
- A sea fish, perhaps the sawfish.[2][8]
- (military) A serrated battle formation that keeps advancing and falling back.[2][6][7]
- (Late Latin) A threshing sledge with toothed wheels.[8][7]
- (Medieval Latin) A mountain ridge; a mountain pass.[9]
- (Medieval Latin) A storehouse.[9][10]
Word family
- serrāgō
- serrālia
- serrārius
- serrō
- serrula
Related words
- serrābilis
- serrātim
- serrātōrius
- serrātūra
- serrātus
- sāriō
- English sierra
Usage notes
Du Cange also records medieval serra for sera, the bar that shuts a door, and for a sickle.[10]
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
- ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre