seraph

See also: Seraph

English

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seraph

Wikipedia

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

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. A description can be found at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 6.
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, Herman Melville, chapter XXIII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade:

     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

Alternative forms

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

Synonyms

• uraeus

Related terms

• seraphic

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: σεράφ n or m (seráph), σεραφείν n pl or m pl (serapheín) Hebrew: שָׂרָף (he) m (saráf) 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 Roman: 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 σεράφ (seráph), back-formed from σεραφείμ (serapheím) by analogy with Biblical Hebrew שְׂרָפִים (śərāp̄îm), the plural form of שָׂרָף (śārāp̄, “burning one”), often translated as "fiery ones" although meaning is uncertain; 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, 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”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sĕrăphīm”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.