sera Latin · revision 7010
16 Oct 2026, 12:58 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=derivation|attested=Plautus|origins=la serō}}
+
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈsɛ.ra]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈsɛː.ra]^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Forms==
+ '''sera''' ''f'' (genitive serae); first declension^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is perhaps from [[serō]] “to join, bind”, compare instrument nouns such as [[serra]] and [[traha]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Köbler traces it to [[ine-pro|*ser-|t=to line up, bind]].^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ The OLD's earliest citation is from Plautus, of a door bar.^(OLD 2012) Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==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.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic and absent from Cicero.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Ovid and Petronius use it more widely of a lock or bolt, and Columella of the rail of a post-and-rail fence.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(OLD 2012) Döderlein explains that ''sera'' is a movable bolt put on the door, ''claustrum'' one fastened to it.^(Döderlein 1874)
+
+ In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a bolt, bar.^(Stelten 1995) Wiktionary connects Italian ''saracinesca'' “portcullis” with it, with doubt.^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a door bar.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a removable bar.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a bolt.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a fence rail.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Noun===
+ # A movable bar across a door; a [[m|en|bolt]], lock.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)
+ # The rail of a fence.^(OLD 2012)
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[serō]]
+ * [[claustrum]]
+ * [[obex]]
+
+ ==Usage notes==
+ In Medieval Latin a different ''sēra'', from [[sērus]] “late”, meant evening, and the west.^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}