The story
- Latin · derived fromcereus“waxy”
- Old French · derived fromcierge
- Middle English · inherited fromserge
- English todaycierge
From earlier cerge, from Middle English serge, cerge, from Old French cierge, cerge from Latin cereus (“waxy”), from cera (“wax”). The current pronunciation is learnedly taken from modern French cierge (with varying degrees of nativisation).
Words from the same roots
Latincereus all →
cereous
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.