serein

Etymology

Borrowed from French serein. Doublet of serene.

Noun

serein (uncountable)

1. Light rainfall from a cloudless sky after sunset.
   • 2000, Raphael Confiant, Mamzelle Dragonfly

     "She must have caught a chill from the serein, that's all!"

Anagrams

• Eisner, irenes, seiner, serine, sirene

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sə.ʁɛ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: sereins, serin, serins

Etymology 1

From Old French serein, probably from seri (“calm, mild”), serrit (with a change of suffix influenced by Latin serēnus), from a verb deriving from Latin serescō, serēscere (“grow dry”), itself from or related to serēnus (“cloudless”), by extension "calm, peaceful".

Etymology 2

Either from Latin serenum (“good weather”), or from Old French serein (“evening”), from Latin serum.

Anagrams

• insère, inséré, reines, renies, résine, résiné, seiner, sirène

Further reading

• “serein” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Alternative forms

• serain

Etymology 1

From seri (“calm, mild”), serrit (with a change of suffix influenced by Latin serēnus), from a verb deriving from Latin serescō, serēscere (“grow dry”), itself from or related to serēnus (“cloudless”), by extension "calm, peaceful".

Etymology 2

From a derivative of Latin serum.

Noun

serein m (oblique plural sereinz, nominative singular sereinz, nominative plural serein)

1. evening