11 entries found

sire (n.)

c. 1200, title placed before a name and denoting knighthood, from Old French sire "lord (appellation), sire, my lord," from Vulgar Latin *seior, from Latin senior "older, elder," from PIE root *sen- "old." Standing alone and meaning "your majesty" it is attested from early 13c. General sense of "important elderly man" is from mid-14c.; that of "father, male parent" is from mid-13c.

sire (v.)

"to beget, to be the sire of," 1610s, from sire (n.). Used chiefly of beasts, especially of stallions. Related: Sired; siring.

grandsire (n.)

"a grandfather," late 13c., from Anglo-French graunt sire; see grand- + sire (n.). From 19c. often in reference to animal lineages.

*sen- 

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "old." It forms all or part of: monseigneur; seignior; senate; senescent; seneschal; senicide; senile; senility; senior; seniority; senor; senora; senorita; shanachie; Shannon; signor; sir; sire; surly. It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit sanah "old;" Avestan hana- "old," Old Persian hanata- "old age, lapse of time;" Armenian hin "old;" Greek enos "old, of last year;" Latin senilis "of old age," senex "old, old man;" Lithuanian senas "old," senis "an old man;" Gothic sineigs "old" (used only of persons), sinistra "elder, senior;" Old Norse sina "dry standing grass from the previous year;" Old Irish sen, Old Welsh hen "old."

telegony (n.)

supposed influence of a sire on the offspring of a female by a later sire, 1893, from Greek tele "far off" (from PIE root *kwel- (2) "far" in space or time) + -geneia "origin," from -genes "born" (from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget").

procreator (n.)

"one who begets, a father or sire," 1540s, from French procreateur or directly from Latin procreator, from past-participle stem of procreare "to bring forth" offspring (see procreation). Fem. forms procreatrix, procreatress "a mother" are from 1590s.

Roman holiday (n.)

"occasion on which entertainment or profit is derived from injury or death," 1860, originally in reference to holidays for gladiatorial combat; the expression seems to be entirely traceable to an oft-quoted passage on a dying barbarian gladiator from the fourth canto (1818) of Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage":
But where his rude hut by the Danube lay
There were his young barbarians all at play,
There was their Dacian mother. He, their sire,
Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday!

senior (adj.)

late 13c., from Latin senior "older," comparative of senex (genitive senis) "old," from PIE root *sen- "old." Original use in English was as an addition to a personal name indicating "the father" when father and son had the same name; meaning "higher in rank, longer in service" first recorded 1510s. The Latin word yielded titles of respect in many languages, such as French sire, Spanish señor, Portuguese senhor, Italian signor. Also compare Herr. Senior citizen first recorded 1938, American English.

siren (n.)

mid-14c., "sea nymph who by her singing lures sailors to their destruction," from Old French sereine (12c., Modern French sirène) and directly from Latin Siren (Late Latin Sirena), from Greek Seiren ["Odyssey," xii.39 ff.], one of the Seirenes, mythical sisters who enticed sailors to their deaths with their songs, also in Greek "a deceitful woman," perhaps literally "binder, entangler," from seira "cord, rope." Meaning "device that makes a warning sound" (on an ambulance, etc.) first recorded 1879, in reference to steamboats, perhaps from similar use of the French word. Figurative sense of "one who sings sweetly and charms" is recorded from 1580s. The classical descriptions of them were mangled in medieval translations and glosses, resulting in odd notions of what they looked like.