serum

From Latin serum (“whey”). Cognates include French sérum, Spanish suero, Italian siere, siero, Portuguese soro. Doublet of suero.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪəɹəm/, /ˈsiːɹəm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɹəm/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsiɹəm/
• Rhymes: (UK) -ɪəɹəm, (US) -ɪɹəm

serum (countable and uncountable, plural serums or sera)

1. The clear yellowish liquid obtained upon separating whole blood into its solid and liquid components after it has been allowed to clot.

   Synonym: blood serum

2. Blood serum from the tissues of immunized animals, containing antibodies and used to transfer immunity to another individual.
3. A watery liquid from animal tissue, especially one that moistens the surface of serous membranes or that is exuded by such membranes when they become inflamed, such as in edema or a blister.
4. The watery portion of certain animal fluids like blood, milk, etc; whey.
5. (skincare) An intensive moisturising product to be applied after cleansing but before a general moisturiser.

• (medicine prepared from animal fluids): antiserum

• See antivenom and antidote (some serums)

• sero-

• “serum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “serum”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “serum”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Esrum, Mureș, Muser, Remus, Sumer, merus, mures, murse, muser, resum, semur

Ultimately from Latin serum. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• IPA^(key): /ˈseː.rʏm/, [ˈsɪː.rʏm]

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: se‧rum

serum n (plural sera or serums)

1. blood serum

• antiserum
• bloedserum

• serū

From Proto-Italic *serom, from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to flow, run”); see also Sanskrit सर (sara, “flowing”), Sanskrit सार (sā́ra, “curd, cream”), Sanskrit सारण (sāraṇa, “flowing, buttermilk”), and Ancient Greek ὁρός (horós, “whey, curd, semen”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈse.rum/, [ˈs̠ɛrʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈse.rum/, [ˈsɛːrum]

serum n (genitive serī); second declension

1. whey
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 3.404–406:

     Nec tibi cūra canum fuerit postrēma, sed ūnā
     vēlōcis Spartae catulōs ācremque Molossum
     pāsce serō pinguī.

     Nor let the concern for your dogs be the last, but in the same way
     the brave Molossan and the whelps of the swift Spartan
     feed with fat whey.

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 28.130:

     Būbulī serum orthopnoicīs prōdest ante cētera additō nāsturtiō.

     Whey of cows is more beneficial to asthmatics than others when cress is added to it.

2. (by extension) some other watery liquid
   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 80:

     Quid dīcam, Gellī, quārē rosea ista labella
          hībernā fīant candidiōra nive,
     māne domō cum exīs et cum tē octāva quiēte
          ē mollī longō suscitat hōra diē?
     Nesciŏquid certest: an vērē fāma susurrat
          grandia tē mediī tenta vorāre virī?
     Sīc certest: clāmant Victōris rupta miselli
          īlia, et ēmulsō barba notāta serō.

     What shall I say, Gellius, how these rosy lips
          are whiter than wintery snow,
     when you walk out of the house when the eighth hour
          rouses you from soft rest in the long day?
     Something's sure: perhaps your reputation whispers truthfully
          that you devour the large protuberance of a man's middle?
     So is it certain: thus the broken loins of the poor Victor
          cry, and the beard marked with the milked-out semen.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

sērum

1. nominative neuter singular of sērus

• “serum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “serum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• serum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• serum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

serum

1. first-person plural past indicative active of sá

Learned borrowing from Latin serum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛ.rum/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrum
• Syllabification: se‧rum

serum n (indeclinable)

1. (rare) serum (yellowish fluid obtained from blood)

   Synonym: surowica

2. (cosmetics) serum (skincare product)

• serum in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• serum in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Latin serum (“whey”).

• IPA^(key): /sěːrum/
• Hyphenation: se‧rum

sérum m (Cyrillic spelling се́рум)

1. serum

• IPA^(key): /seˈɾum/ [seˈɾũm]
• Rhymes: -um
• Syllabification: se‧rum

serum m (plural serums)

1. serum