The corpus record — Latin

serra

saw; serrated battle formation

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

De Corona 1 · 2.06/10k
Georgicon 1 · 0.71/10k
De agri cultura 1 · 0.64/10k
Peristephanon Liber 1 · 0.57/10k
De Rerum Natura 1 · 0.21/10k
Tusculanae Disputationes 1 · 0.18/10k
Metamorphoses 1 · 0.13/10k
Naturalis Historia 5 · 0.13/10k
Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 1 · 0.08/10k

What it meant

1. serra — de Vaan

serra 'saw; serrated battle formation' [f. a] (P1.+) Derivatives: serrula 'small saw' (Varro+). Pit. *sersa- 'saw'. PIE *sers-h2- 'cutting off. Within Latin, the best connection is with sario 'to hoe, weed', which would point to a root *srs-. Bibl.: WH Π: 524, EM 619, Schrijver 1991: 493. -> satid — [de Vaan, s.v. serra, p. 572]

2. serra — Lewis & Short

serra, ae, f.perh. = sec - ra, seg - ra, from seco.

I A saw, the invention of Daedalus, Ov. M. 8, 246; Sen. Ep. 90, 8; Plin. 7, 56, 57, § 198; Hyg. Fab. 274: stridens, Lucr. 2, 410: stridor serrae, Cic. Tusc. 5, 40, 116; Varr. ap. Non. 223, 19; Vitr. 2, 7: arguta, Verg. G. 1, 143 et saep.—Prov.: serram ducere cum aliquo de aliquā re, to quarrel with one about something, Varr. R. R. 3, 6, 1; so, too, quamdiu per hanc lineam serram reciprocabimus? Tert. Cor. Mil. 3.— Trop., of the back of a thin person, Mart. 11, 100, 4.—

II Transf.

A A kind of sawfish, Plin. 9, 2, 1, § 3; 32, 11, 53, § 145.—

B A serrated order of battle: serra proeliari dicitur, cum assidue acceditur recediturque neque ullo consistitur tempore. Cato de re militari: Sive opus est cuneo, aut globo, aut forcipe aut turribus aut serrā uti adoriare, Fest. p. 344 Müll.; cf. Gell. 10, 9, 1; Veg. Mil. 3, 19 fin.—

C A threshingwain, with serrated wheels, Hier. in Amos, 1; Vulg. lsa. 28, 27.—

D Serra, in relig. lang., the name of the Tiber, acc. to Serv. Verg. A. 8, 63.

3. serra — Walde–Hofmann

serra, -ae f. „Säge; sägenförmige Schlachtordnung“ (seit Plaut, und Cato, rom.; serrula „kleine Säge“ seit Varro und Cic, serrägö seit Cael. Aur. [nach farra-, Leumann-Stolz* 241], serrätus, -a, -um seit Petron und Plin., -äta f. seit Ps. Apul, serrö, -üre ,süge" seit Cels, serrürius seit Sen., serrütim seit Vitr., serrätiö seit Hier., serrütórius seit Amm. [-um : uoyMg Gl.), serrätula seit Plin., serrütüra seit … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. serra, p. 1430]

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. serra (scan p. 572; entry #1614). Root candidates: *sersa-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. serra (scan p. 181; entry #2782).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. serra (scan p. 1430; entry #2575).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.