Emily Dickinson Lexicon

sere (sear), adj. [OE; see sear, adj.]

1. Dry; clear; not cloudy; without rain.
2. Brown; without moisture; no longer green; lifeless after being cut back.
3. Withered; parched; shriveled; dried out; [fig.] boring; dull; drab; tedious; tiresome; not interesting.
4. Burning; cauterizing; scorching; high in temperature and low in humidity.

sere, n. [see sear, adj. and see sere, adj.]

Dry leaves; fallen tree needles; [word play on “dry goods”] fabric; material; textile; woven cloth.

serene (-r), adj. [L. 'clear, fair, calm'.]

1. Calm; pacific; peaceful.
2. Clear; fine; rainless; without clouds; of good weather.

serf (-s), n. [OFr < L. serv-um, slave.] (webplay: “The serfs in Poland are slaves”).

Servant; household slave; attendant who keeps the lamps in the house burning; [possible pun on “seraph”] spirit.

series, n. [L. 'row, chain, join, connect'.]

Succession; sequence; string; chain; run; track; continued course; line of contiguous entities; days in the month.

sermon, n. [AFr < L. 'talk, discourse, speech'.]

1. Discourse; homily; exhortation; preaching; religious instruction based upon a passage of scripture; speech that a pastor delivers from a church pulpit.
2. Message; [fig.] ode; song; psalmody; poetry; lyric verse.

serpent (-'s), n. [OFr < L. 'creeping thing, crawling, serpent'.]

1. Snake; long slender legless creeping reptile.
2. Asp; cobra; viper; venomous snake; noxious reptile; [fig.] deceiver; liar; prevaricator; tempter; beguiling creature in the Garden of Eden; [metaphor] Satan; Lucifer; the Devil; (see Genesis 3:1-4).

servant, n. [see serve, v.] (webplay: abroad, angels, bring, command, day, do, less, low, preferment, seek, time).

Valet; domestic attendant; personal helper who performs menial tasks for another.

serve (-d), v. [OFr < L. 'to be a servant or slave'.] (webplay: achievement, act, bring, apply, artifice, bestow, content, day, favor, given, God, greater, hairs, happiness, house, human, judge, keep, knee, light, loved, lowest, marriage, obey, person, read, sea, seek, seize, self, solos, spirit, stops, satisfy, sufficient, thing, time, together, tree, trick, truth, turn, waits, week).

1. Suit; fit; suffice; satisfy; content.
2. Give; offer; present.
3. Act; work; perform duties for; provide something for; [fig.] rise; provide heat and warmth to the earth.
4. Worship; obey; heed; hearken to; render homage to; give habitual obedience to.

service (-s), n. [OFr < L servitium, slave.] (webplay: abroad, achievement, actual, attendants, attends, attentions, bestow, bright, condition, content, country, custom, day, diligently, dine, end, follower, funeral, God, hairs, household, ignoble, keep, less, loved, lowest, man, mean, mind, musical, peace, place, present, race, read, required, respect, sea, seat, state, spirit, stopping, table, term, think, time, turn, waits, work, worship).

1. Worship meeting; church liturgy; religious ceremony with music and the spoken word.
2. Funeral rites; eulogy ritual; observance of the dead with music and remarks of praise; [fig.] profession of respect, honor, allegiance, or veneration.
3. Purpose; function; use.
4. Duty; fee; something owed to a lord by his tenant.
5. Effort of body; exertion of mind; work to be done; labor to be performed for the benefit of another.
6. Assistance; aid; benefit.
7. Table setting; set of dishes and other utensils used together for dining.