Wiktionary

serotinal

See also: sérotinal

English edit

WOTD – 19 February 2025

Etymology edit

From serotine +‎ -al (suffix forming adjectives).[1][2]

Pronunciation edit

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /sɪˈɹɒtɪnəl/, /-ˈɹəʊ-/, /ˌsɛɹəˈtaɪnəl/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /səˈɹɑtɪnəl/, /səˈɹɑtnəl/, /ˌsɛɹəˈtaɪnəl/
  • Rhymes: -aɪnəl
  • Hyphenation: ser‧o‧tin‧al

Adjective edit

serotinal (not comparable)

  1. (biology) Synonym of serotine (“developing at a later time or later in a season, especially than is customary with allied species; specifically (botany), of a plant: flowering late in a season”)
    Synonym: serotinous
    • 1878 June 22, Dr. Ford, “Aborted Ovum, and Fœtal Monstrosity”, in Tho[ma]s F. Rumbold, Hiram Christopher, editors, The Saint Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, volume XXXV, St. Louis, Mo.: Geo[rge] O. Rumbold & Co., […], published October 1878, →OCLC, page 116:
      Soon, however, the allantois undergoes changes of development looking towards the formation of the placenta at the base of the ovum, where the chorionic villi becomes more and more developed, the serotinal tissue growing toward and around them and encapsulating them, while at the same time the vessels of the serotinal layer become dilated to form the material system of placental blood-supply.
    • 1883, Harrison Allen, “Embryology and the Study of Malformations”, in A System of Human Anatomy. […], section VI (Organs of Sense, of Digestion and Genito-urinary Organs), Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry C[harles] Lea’s Son & Co., →OCLC, page 763, column 2:
      The inner (chorionic) surface [of the placenta] exhibits ramifications of the umbilical vessels, and is closely covered on its fœtal side by the amnion; from its placental (outer, serotinal) side multitudes of arborescent vasculi villi arise […].
  2. (often ecology) Occurring in or pertaining to late summer.
    Coordinate terms: autumnal, brumal, estival, hibernal, (rare) hiemal, prevernal, vernal; see also Thesaurus:seasonal
    • 1898 June 15, Roscoe Pound, Frederic E[dward] Clements, “A Method of Determining the Abundance of Secondary Species”, in Conway MacMillan, editor, Minnesota Botanical Studies: Reports of the Survey and Bulletin of the Department (Botanical Series; IV), volume II, Minneapolis, Minn.: Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, →OCLC, page 19:
      The psoraleas, prairie clovers and blazing stars would probably occur to all us among the most the most abundant of the secondary species in the vernal, estival and serotinal aspects of the prairies respectively.
    • 1936, Frederic E[dward] Clements, “Nature and Structure of the Climax”, in A[rthur] G[eorge] Tansley, editor, Journal of Ecology, volume XXIV, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press [for the British Ecological Society], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 276:
      Whenever societies are well developed, they regularly manifest a fairly definite seasonal sequence, producing what have long been known as aspects […]. As phenomena of the growing season, these were first distinguished as early spring or prevernal, vernal proper, estival, and serotinal or autumnal, but there may also be a hiemal aspect, especially for animals, in correspondence with an actual and not merely a calendar winter as in California.
    • 1983, Philip K. Jason, “Body Language”, in Near the Fire: Poems, Takoma Park, Md.: Dryad Press, →ISBN, stanza 2, page 67:
      My knuckles and my bony wrists / show early signs of drying out; / […] / The night condenses into me, allays / the bonds of my serotinal blight. / Count Dracula and I share in this flight: / we seek moist shadows underneath the quays, / in marrow-darkness bid our bodies twist.
      Used figuratively to refer to old age.
    • 1986, Acta Entomologica Bohemoslovaca, volume 83, Prague: Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 114:
      In these population dynamic trends obvious differences exist between the aestival and serotinal aspects.
    • [1995, Robert J. Whelan, “Survival of Individual Organisms”, in The Ecology of Fire (Cambridge Studies in Ecology), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 96:
      Botanists use the word serotinous to describe late-blossoming, and serotinal refers to the late-summer season of the year, especially used in descriptions of life-histories of freshwater organisms […].]
    • 2014, Timothy J. Entwisle, “Sprummer, the Cranky One”, in Sprinter and Sprummer: Australia’s Changing Seasons, Collingwood, Melbourne, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, →ISBN, page 77:
      Cutting across the wide range of seasonal systems in different countries, ecologists have their own more-or-less universal system, at least in temperate regions, for describing animal behaviour. There are six of these ecological seasons, […] Late summer, serotinal, is from mid-February to mid-March, still in my summer but breaking into Vivaldi autumn. […] [I]t doesn't gel with me as a way of tracking the seasonal changes here in Australia.
    • 2014, Juan-Paolo Perre, “Águas de Março: Elis Regina & Tom Jobim”, in A Confederacy of Joy: Poems (The Legacy Poetry Prize Series), Los Angeles, Calif.; London: Siena Press, →ISBN, part V, page 97:
      can we let all of this short life's / vestigial metaphors fade away. Prepare ourselves / the taking for granted of most everything – start our disservice to memory / and bid adieu to the old melancholy of the serotinal dusk.
    • 2019, Christopher Dewdney, “Apollo’s Chariot: The Seasons”, in 18 Miles: The Epic Drama of the Atmosphere and Its Weather, London: Bloomsbury Sigma, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 186:
      With the warm, serotinal weather continuing in September, the deserted beaches become a poignantly vacant stage for summer's last drama, its decline.

Related terms edit

Translations edit

synonym of serotine — see serotine

References edit

  1. ^ “serotinal, adj.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ “serotinal, adj.”, in Collins English Dictionary.

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

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