English
serif
Serif comes from Dutch; the Dutch form is not named.
- Dutchc. 1500–presentform not named
- Englishearliest quotation 2018serif
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Dutchc. 1500–presentform not named
- Englishearliest quotation 2018serif
Earliest quotation: 2018, Paul W. Ross: “It is generally believed, by those who study such…”
The story
There are two (not directly interrelated) candidates for a possible Dutch origin: 1.) the noun schreef (“stroke”, now also “serif” as a semantic loan), related with schrapen (‘to scrape’); and 2.) the verb schrafferen (‘to provide with horizontal lines, to shade’), from Italian sgraffiare. For the latter, compare German Schraffe (‘serif’), although this again may be a semantic loan based on the English word rather than original to it. Alternatively, from Late Latin cerificus (‘waxen’), from Latin cera (‘wax’), after the ruled lines used in writing on wax tablets.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.
Today it means
noun A short line added to the end of a stroke in traditional typefaces, such as Times New Roman.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / serif