Etymograph

English

serenade

Serenade comes from Latin serenus ‘calm’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEserenus‘calm’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEserenare
  3. Italianc. 1300–presentserenata
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentsérénade
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1865serenade

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEserenus‘calm’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEserenare
  3. Italianc. 1300–presentserenata
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentsérénade
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1865serenade

Earliest quotation: 1865, Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d: “From me to thee glad serenades, / Dances for…”

The story

Borrowed from French sérénade, from Italian serenata, from the past participle of serenare, from Latin serenare, from serenus (‘calm’), of uncertain origin (see there).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Every English word from Latin serenus

Today it means

noun A love song that is sung directly to one's love interest, especially one performed below the window of a loved one in the evening.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin serenus / serenade

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