serge

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɜːd͡ʒ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɝd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒ

From Middle English sarge, from Old French sarge, serge, from Vulgar Latin *sarica, from Latin sērica (“silken, silk things”), from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), possibly from Old Chinese 絲 (*sə, “silk”). Doublet of silk and seric.

serge (countable and uncountable, plural serges)

1. (textiles) A type of worsted cloth.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 110:

     Lucy, who had only seen her in either the large loose wrapping dress of serge, or in the quaint simplicity of the Puritanic garb, then so general in England, could not restrain an exclamation of admiration as she returned to their chamber.

   • 1993, John Banville, Ghosts:

     What I noticed most strongly was his smell, of hair oil and serge and cigarette smoke, and something else, something intimate and sour and wholly, shockingly other.

2. (by metonymy) A garment made of this fabric.

• silk serge

• denim

serge (third-person singular simple present serges, present participle serging, simple past and past participle serged)

1. (sewing) To overlock.

From Middle English cerge, from Old French ci(e)rge, cerge & chierge.

serge (plural serges)

1. A large wax candle used in some church ceremonies.

• Geers, Geres, Seger, egers, egres, geers, grees

• sarge (obsolete)

Inherited from Middle French sarge, from Old French sarge, from Vulgar Latin *sarica, from Latin sērica, ultimately from the Ancient Greek σηρῐκός (sērikós, “silken”).

• IPA^(key): /sɛʁʒ/

• Audio:

  (file)

serge f (plural serges)

1. (textiles) twill, serge

• → English: serge

• “serge”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Old French cierge, cerge, cirge, from Latin cereus (“waxy”).

• cerge, serje, sherge, cirge

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛrdʒ(ə)/, /ˈsirdʒ(ə)/

serge (plural serges)

1. cierge (candle used in ceremony)

• English: cierge
• Scots: serge, sarge (obsolete)

• “cerǧe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

serge

1. Alternative form of serche (“search”)

serge

1. Alternative form of serche (“cut rock”)

serge

1. Alternative form of serchen (“to search”)