Etymology

serum

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Today it means: Blood serum used as a blood product, in the practice of medicine: blood serum from the tissues of immunized animals (human or nonhuman), containing antibodies and used to transfer immunity to another individual (human or nonhuman). Full definition →

Latin serum ← Proto-Italic *serom ← Proto-Indo-European *sér-o-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ser-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*sér-o-
  3. Proto-Italic*serom
  4. Latinserum
  5. English todayserum

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.