seraph

See also: Seraph

English

A painting of God and two seraphim from the 14th century.

Etymology

Back-formation of singular from plural seraphim, from Latin seraphim, from Biblical Hebrew שְׂרָפִים (sərāp̄īm), plural form of שָׂרָף (sārāp̄). The plural "seraphims" occurs in the King James Bible (Isaiah chapter 6).

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the singular "seraph" may have originated with John Milton, who used it in Book I of Paradise Lost (1667).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĕrˈ -əf; IPA^(key): /ˈsɛɹəf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɹəf
• Homophone: serif (one pronunciation)

Noun

seraph (plural seraphs or seraphim or (nonstandard) seraphims)

1. (biblical) A burning serpent, often winged, with human hands and sometimes feet; one of God's entourage. On Earth, they strike with burning poison; in Heaven, with burning coal.
2. (post-biblical) A six-winged angel; one of the highest choir or order of angels in Christian angelology, ranked above cherubim, and below God.
   • 1857 April 1, Herman Melville, chapter XXIII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, New York, N.Y.: Dix, Edwards & Co., […], →OCLC:

     From these uncordial reveries he is roused by a cordial slap on the shoulder, accompanied by a spicy volume of tobacco-smoke, out of which came a voice, sweet as a seraph's

   • 1857–1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], “(please specify the page)”, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, published 1858, →OCLC:

     I don’t mean that,—I said,—you blessed little saint and seraph!—if there’s an angel missing in the New Jerusalem, inquire for her at this boarding house!

   • 1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC:

     When I got there Mrs. Allan met me at the door. She was dressed in the sweetest dress of pale-pink organdy, with dozens of frills and elbow sleeves, and she looked just like a seraph.

Alternative forms

• saraph (rare)
• seraphim (archaic or nonstandard)

Synonyms

• uraeus

Derived terms

• seraphic
• seraphlike

Translations

high order of angels

• Arabic: سَرَافِيم m (sarāfīm)
• Armenian: սերովբե (serovbe)
• Bulgarian: серафим m (serafim)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 熾天使 / 炽天使 (chìtiānshǐ)

• Czech: seraf m, serafín (cs) m
• Danish: seraf
• Dutch: seraf (nl) m, serafijn (nl) m
• Esperanto: serafo
• Finnish: serafi (fi)
• French: séraphin (fr) m
• German: Seraph (de) m
• Greek: σεραφείμ (el) n (serafeím), σεραφίμ n (serafím)

  Ancient Greek: σεράφ n or m (seráph), σεραφείν n pl or m pl (serapheín)

• Hebrew: שָׂרָף (he) m (saráf)
• Hindi: साराप m (sārāp)
• Icelandic: serafi m
• Interlingua: seraphin, seraphino
• Italian: serafino (it) m
• Japanese: 熾天使 (ja) (してんし, shitenshi)
• Kazakh: оттай жалындаған періште (ottai jalyndağan perışte)
• Korean: 치천사(熾天使) (chicheonsa)
• Latin: seraph n or m
• Macedonian: серафим m (serafim)
• Norwegian: seraf (no)
• Polish: serafin (pl) m
• Portuguese: serafim (pt) m
• Romanian: serafim (ro) m
• Russian: серафи́м (ru) m (serafím)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: серафим m

  Latin: serafim m

• Spanish: serafín (es)
• Swedish: seraf (sv)
• Tagalog: serapin
• Telugu: సెరాపు (serāpu)
• Ukrainian: серафи́м m (serafým)

See also

• archangel
• cherub

Anagrams

• E sharp, E-sharp, Harpes, Sharpe, Sherpa, Spehar, e sharp, e-sharp, harpes, hepars, pasher, phares, phaser, phrase, raphes, shaper, sharpe, sherpa, shrape, sphear

Latin

Etymology

From Koine Greek σερᾱ́φ (serā́ph), back-formed from σερᾱφείμ (serāpheím) by analogy with Biblical Hebrew שְׂרָפִים (śərāp̄îm), the plural form of שָׂרָף (śārāp̄, “burning one”); perhaps related to the root שרף (“to burn”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛ.rapʰ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛː.raf]

Noun

seraph n or m (genitive seraph)

1. (biblical, chiefly in the plural) seraph

   Coordinate term: cherūb

   • Nova Vulgata, Isaiah 6:2&6

     Seraphim stabant iuxta eum; sex alae uni et sex alae alteri: duabus velabat faciem suam et duabus velabat pedes suos et duabus volabat.

     Et volavit ad me unus de seraphim, et in manu eius calculus, quem forcipe tulerat de altari,

   • c. 1300, Richard of Middleton, Clarissimi theologi magistri Ricardi de Media Villa‎^[1], published 1591:

     & superior angelus inferioris ordinis, est inferior inferiori angelo superioris ordinis: & summus seraph est inferior Deo in infinitum.

     and a higher angel of a lower order is inferior to a lower angel of a higher order; and the highest seraph is infinitely inferior to God.

Declension

Indeclinable noun (with a distinct plural; four different stems).

	singular	plural
nominative	seraph	seraphīm seraphīn serapheim seraphein
genitive	seraph	seraphīm seraphīn serapheim seraphein
dative	seraph	seraphīm seraphīn serapheim seraphein
accusative	seraph	seraphīm seraphīn serapheim seraphein
ablative	seraph	seraphīm seraphīn serapheim seraphein
vocative	seraph	seraphīm seraphīn serapheim seraphein

References

• “Sĕrăphīn or Sĕrăphīm”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sĕrăphīm ou sĕrăphīn”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.