sire

See also: Sire, şire, šire, and šíře

English

Etymology

From Middle English sire, from Old French sire, the nominative singular of seignor; from Latin senior, from senex. Doublet of senior, seigneur, seignior, sir, and monsieur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /saɪə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

As King of England, William III would be addressed as Your Majesty or sire.

Darley Arabian, one of the foundation sires of the thoroughbred breed of horse.

Noun

sire (plural sires)

1. A lord, master, or other person in authority, most commonly used vocatively: formerly in speaking to elders and superiors, later only when addressing a sovereign.
2. A male animal that has fathered a particular offspring (especially used of domestic animals and/or in biological research).
3. (obsolete) A father; the head of a family; the husband.
   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     And raise his issue, like a loving sire.

4. (obsolete) A creator; a maker; an author; an originator.
   • 1821, Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, […], Pisa, Italy: […] Didot; reprinted London: Noel Douglas […], 1927, OCLC 1156441409, stanza IV, page 8:

     Most musical of mourners, weep again! / Lament anew, Urania!—He died, / Who was the sire of an immortal strain, […]

Coordinate terms

• (male animal): dam

Translations

lord, master, or person in authority

• Dutch: sire (nl)
• Esperanto: sinjoro (eo)
• Finnish: herra (fi)
• German: Herr (de) m
• Italian: sire (it) m
• Japanese: 主 (ja) (あるじ, aruji), 陛下 (ja) (へいか, heika)

• Korean: 폐하 (ko) (pyeha)
• Middle English: sire
• Romanian: domn (ro) m
• Russian: госуда́рь (ru) m (gosudárʹ)
• Spanish: amo (es) m, dueño (es) m, señor (es) m, seor m, ser (es) m

male animal

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 父畜, 父兽

• Dutch: dekhengst (nl)
• Finnish: koiras (fi)
• German: Männchen (de) n; (of dog) Rüde (de) m, (of horse) Hengst (de) m, (of cat) Kater (de) m, (of rabbit) Rammler (de) m
• Italian: stallone (it) m, riproduttore (it) m, maschio (it) m

• Japanese: 雄 (ja) (おす, osu) オス (osu)
• Malay: induk jantan
• Russian: производи́тель (ru) m (proizvodítelʹ)
• Spanish: semental apareado (es) m

Verb

sire (third-person singular simple present sires, present participle siring, simple past and past participle sired)

1. (transitive, of a male) to father; to beget.
   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 6:

     In these travels, my father sired thirteen children in all, four boys and nine girls.

Translations

to procreate

• Dutch: verwekken (nl)
• Finnish: siittää (fi), astua (fi)
• French: saillir (fr)
• German: zeugen (de)

• Hungarian: nemz (hu)
• Kabuverdianu: bodeka
• Polish: spłodzić (pl)
• Russian: породить (ru) (poroditʹ)

Anagrams

• EIRs, Eris, Iser, SIer, Seri, eirs, ires, reis, rise

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Danish

Etymology

From German zieren.

Verb

sire

1. (archaic) adorn
2. (archaic, by extension, especially in the passive participle) endow with a favorable quality

Derived terms

• vansire

References

• “sire” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

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French

Etymology

From Old French sire (nominative form), from Vulgar Latin *seior (used as a term of address), a contracted form of Latin senior (compare French seigneur, derived from the accusative form), perhaps influenced by maior. Doublet of senior.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /siʁ/
• Rhymes: -iʁ
• Homophones: cire, cirent, cires, sires

Noun

sire m (plural sires)

1. (obsolete) sire (term of respect)
2. (obsolete) lord

Derived terms

• triste sire

Related terms

• monsieur
• seigneur

Further reading

• “sire” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• ries

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French sire. See also sere. Doublet of signore.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsi.re/

Noun

sire m (invariable)

1. king, monarch (only when addressing a sovereign)

   Synonyms: re, sovrano, monarca, maestà

Anagrams

• Eris, IRES, ersi, resi, rise, seri

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• sir, sirre, syre, syr, seere, ser, sure, sore
• ẜ

Etymology

From Old French sire, nominative singular of seignor, from Latin senior. Doublet of senyour.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːr(ə)/, /ˈsir(ə)/, /ˈsɛr(ə)/

Noun

sire (plural sires)

1. Used preceding the name or title of a knight, noble, or cleric.
2. A respectful term of address for a noble or gentleman.
3. A noble or lord; one of high station.
4. A husband as the head of a household.
5. A father as one's progenitor.

Descendants

• English: sir; sire
• Scots: sir; sire

References

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

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Old French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsi.rə/

Noun

sire m

1. nominative singular of sieur

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Pali

Alternative forms

Alternative scripts

• 𑀲𑀺𑀭𑁂 (Brahmi script)
• सिरे (Devanagari script)
• সিরে (Bengali script)
• සිරෙ (Sinhalese script)
• သိရေ (Burmese script)
• สิเร (Thai script)
• ᩈᩥᩁᩮ (Tai Tham script)
• ສິເຣ (Lao script)
• សិរេ (Khmer script)

Noun

sire

1. locative singular of siras

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Romanian

Etymology

From French sire.

Noun

sire m (uncountable)

1. sire

Declension

declension of sire (singular only)

	singular
m gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) sire	sireul
genitive/dative	(unui) sire	sireului
vocative	sireule

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Serbo-Croatian

Verb

sire (Cyrillic spelling сире)

1. third-person plural present of siriti

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Slovene

Noun

sire

1. accusative plural of sir