Etymology

serac

se·rac
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Today it means: Often sérac: a hard, cone-shaped, pale green, strongly flavoured cheese from Switzerland made from skimmed cow milk and blue fenugreek (Trigonella caerulea); Schabziger, Sapsago. It is usually eaten grated, mixed with butter, or in a fondue. Full definition →

First used mid 19th c.Swiss French sérac ← Franco-Provençal sera ← Latin seraceum
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ser-“to flow, run”
  2. Latin · derived fromseraceum
  3. Franco-Provençal · derived fromsera
  4. Swiss French · borrowed fromsérac“kind of cheese; sharp tower of ice”
  5. English todayserac

From Swiss French sérac (“kind of cheese; sharp tower of ice”), from Franco-Provençal sera, seré, from Latin seraceum, from serum (“whey”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to flow, run”). Sense 2 is from the resemblance of the towers of ice to the cheese, which tends to cleave into rectangular pieces.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*ser- all →

seriesinsertheroobserveconciergeHermessorcererSerbsorceryheresyberserksarksortieberserkerHeratdiaeresissereensorcellirenic

First known use, by meaning

  • from mid 19th c. A sharp tower of ice formed by intersecting crevasses of a glacier.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.