serum

See also: Serum, sèrum, and sérum

English

Etymology

From Latin serum (“whey”). Cognates include French sérum, Spanish suero, Italian siere, siero, Portuguese soro. Doublet of suero.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪəɹəm/, /ˈsiːɹəm/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɹəm/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsiɹəm/
• Rhymes: (UK) -ɪəɹəm, (US) -ɪɹəm

Noun

serum (countable and uncountable, plural serums or sera)

1. The clear yellowish liquid obtained upon separating whole blood into its solid and liquid components after it has been allowed to clot.

   Synonym: blood serum

2. Blood serum from the tissues of immunized animals, containing antibodies and used to transfer immunity to another individual.
3. A watery liquid from animal tissue, especially one that moistens the surface of serous membranes or that is exuded by such membranes when they become inflamed, such as in edema or a blister.
4. The watery portion of certain animal fluids like blood, milk, etc; whey.
5. (skincare) An intensive moisturising product to be applied after cleansing but before a general moisturiser.

Synonyms

• (medicine prepared from animal fluids): antiserum

Hyponyms

• See antivenom and antidote (some serums)

Derived terms

Terms derived from serum

• antiserum
• blood serum
• immune serum
• serous
• serum sickness
• truth serum

Related terms

• sero-

Translations

yellowish fluid obtained from blood

• Arabic: مَصْل دَم‎ m (maṣl dam), مَصْل‎ m (maṣl)
• Armenian: շիճուկ (hy) (šičuk)
• Belarusian: сыро́ватка f (syróvatka)
• Bulgarian: се́рум (bg) m (sérum)
• Catalan: sèrum (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 血清 (zh) (xuèqīng, xiěqīng)

• Czech: sérum (cs) n
• Danish: serum n
• Dutch: serum (nl) n
• Esperanto: serumo
• Finnish: seerumi (fi), veriseerumi (fi), verihera (fi)
• French: sérum (fr) m
• Galician: soro (gl) m
• German: Serum (de) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὀρός m (ὀrós)

  Modern: ορός (el) m (orós)

• Hungarian: szérum (hu), vérsavó (hu)
• Italian: siero (it)
• Japanese: 血清 (ja) (けっせい, kessei)
• Korean: 혈청(血淸) (ko) (hyeolcheong)
• Macedonian: серум m (serum)
• Malay: serum
• Navajo: dił bitooʼ
• Persian: خونابه‎ (fa) (xunâbe), سرم‎ (fa) (serom)
• Polish: surowica (pl) f
• Portuguese: soro (pt)
• Romanian: ser (ro)
• Russian: сы́воротка (ru) f (sývorotka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: се́рум m

  Roman: sérum (sh) m

• Slovak: sérum n
• Slovene: serum m
• Spanish: suero (es)
• Thai: ซีรัม (th), น้ำเหลืองของเลือด
• Turkish: serum (tr)
• Ukrainian: сиро́ватка f (syróvatka)
• Vietnamese: huyết thanh (vi) (血清)

blood serum containing antibodies — see antiserum

watery fluid from animal tissue

• Finnish: kudosneste (fi)

watery portion of certain animal fluids

• Bulgarian: суроватка (bg) f (surovatka)
• Finnish: hera (fi)
• Hungarian: savó (hu)

skincare product

• Finnish: seerumi (fi)
• Polish: serum (pl) n
• Spanish: sérum m, serum m

Further reading

• “serum”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “serum”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• serum at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Esrum, Mureș, Muser, Remus, Sumer, merus, mures, murse, muser, resum, semur

Dutch

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin serum. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈseː.rʏm/, [ˈsɪː.rʏm]

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: se‧rum

Noun

serum n (plural sera or serums)

1. blood serum

Derived terms

• antiserum
• bloedserum

Latin

Alternative forms

• serū

Etymology 1

From Proto-Italic *serom, from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to flow, run”); see also Sanskrit सर (sara, “flowing”), Sanskrit सार (sā́ra, “curd, cream”), Sanskrit सारण (sāraṇa, “flowing, buttermilk”), and Ancient Greek ὁρός (horós, “whey, curd, semen”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈse.rum/, [ˈs̠ɛrʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈse.rum/, [ˈsɛːrum]

Noun

serum n (genitive serī); second declension

1. whey
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgicon 3.404–406:

     Nec tibi cūra canum fuerit postrēma, sed ūnā
     vēlōcis Spartae catulōs ācremque Molossum
     pāsce serō pinguī.

     Nor let the concern for your dogs be the last, but in the same way
     the brave Molossan and the whelps of the swift Spartan
     feed with fat whey.

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 28.130:

     Būbulī serum orthopnoicīs prōdest ante cētera additō nāsturtiō.

     Whey of cows is more beneficial to asthmatics than others when cress is added to it.

2. (by extension) some other watery liquid
   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 80:

     Quid dīcam, Gellī, quārē rosea ista labella
          hībernā fīant candidiōra nive,
     māne domō cum exīs et cum tē octāva quiēte
          ē mollī longō suscitat hōra diē?
     Nesciŏquid certest: an vērē fāma susurrat
          grandia tē mediī tenta vorāre virī?
     Sīc certest: clāmant Victōris rupta miselli
          īlia, et ēmulsō barba notāta serō.

     What shall I say, Gellius, how these rosy lips
          are whiter than wintery snow,
     when you walk out of the house when the eighth hour
          rouses you from soft rest in the long day?
     Something's sure: perhaps your reputation whispers truthfully
          that you devour the large protuberance of a man's middle?
     So is it certain: thus the broken loins of the poor Victor
          cry, and the beard marked with the milked-out semen.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	serum	sera
Genitive	serī	serōrum
Dative	serō	serīs
Accusative	serum	sera
Ablative	serō	serīs
Vocative	serum	sera

Descendants

• Aromanian: dzãr, dzer
• Catalan: sèrum
• → English: serum
• French: sérum
• Galician: soro
• → German: Serum
• Italian: siero
• Portuguese: soro
• Romanian: zer
• Sicilian: seru
• Spanish: sero-, suero

Etymology 2

Adjective

sērum

1. nominative neuter singular of sērus

References

• “serum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “serum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• serum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• serum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

Old Norse

Verb

serum

1. first-person plural past indicative active of sá

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin serum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛ.rum/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrum
• Syllabification: se‧rum

Noun

serum n (indeclinable)

1. (rare) serum (yellowish fluid obtained from blood)

   Synonym: surowica

2. (cosmetics) serum (skincare product)

Further reading

• serum in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• serum in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin serum (“whey”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sěːrum/
• Hyphenation: se‧rum

Noun

sérum m (Cyrillic spelling се́рум)

1. serum

Declension

Declension of serum

	singular	plural
nominative	serum	serumi
genitive	seruma	seruma
dative	serumu	serumima
accusative	serum	serume
vocative	serume	serumi
locative	serumu	serumima
instrumental	serumom	serumima

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seˈɾum/ [seˈɾũm]
• Rhymes: -um
• Syllabification: se‧rum

Noun

serum m (plural serums)

1. serum