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#206096 06/19/2012 1:45 PM
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 7
stranger
stranger
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"Sere" as a reference of ecological succession is a new one for me. I remember learning it from an Edgar Allan Poe poem and have loved it ever since, evocative as it is of blasted landscapes (and perhaps hopes). One wonders if its application in an ecological sense comes as much from its descriptive allusion to 'dryness' as from the back formation from 'series'.

Altadena Annie #206161 06/22/2012 2:30 AM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Mm--you mean its homophonicness? Sere/sear.

Jackie #206167 06/22/2012 10:51 AM
Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Originally Posted By: Jackie
Mm--you mean its homophonicness? Sere/sear.


Or either that or sere, one. But I see that sear is a variant spelling. I had never run into it with that spelling before. The two words, sere and sear, 'burn or scorch the surface of (something) with a sudden, intense heat', are from the same OE word, sēar.


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