This week's theme
Back-formations

This week's words
adulate
sere
ablate
esthesia
auscultate

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(seer)

MEANING:

noun: An intermediate stage or a series of stages in the ecological succession of a community. Example: forest, forest destroyed by fire, grass, brush, young trees, mature trees.
adjective: dry; withered.

ETYMOLOGY:

For noun: Back-formation from series, from Latin serere (to connect). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ser- (to line up), that is also the source of words such as assert, desert (to abandon), desert (a dry region with little vegetation), sort, consort, and sorcerer. Earliest documented use: 1916; series is from 1611.
For adjective: Variant spelling of Old English sear (dry). Earliest documented use: 824.

USAGE:

"The duration of an organism's presence in a sere depends on its ability to persist, even as the environment is changing."
Lawrence Walker; The Biology of Disturbed Habitats; Oxford University Press; 2012.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: