Sere means dry and withered, in poetic use. The sere leaves, sere and yellow, a sere landscape.
It survives chiefly in Macbeth's line about the sere and yellow leaf, meaning old age. It is the same word as sear, which kept the sense of drying by heat.
1adjectivesereDry and withered, in poetic use.
“By late summer the hills were sere and brown after months without rain.”
sere is a quality.
Old English sear means dry or withered; sear is the same word.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂sews-
Proto-Germanic
*sauzaz — dry, parched
Proto-West Germanic
*sauʀ(ī)
Old English
sēar
Middle English
ser
English, today
sere
Built from
From Middle English ser, sere, seare, seer, seere, seir, seyr (“dry, withered; emaciated, shrivelled; brittle; bare; dead, lifeless; barren, useless”), from Old English sēar, sīere (“dry, withered; barren; sere”), from Proto-West Germanic sauʀ(ī), from Proto-Germanic sauzaz (“dry, parched”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂sews-, sh₂ews- (“to be dry”). Cognate with Dutch zoor (“dry and coarse”), Greek αὖος (“dry”), Lithuanian sausas (“dry”), Middle Low German sôr (Low German soor (“arid, dry”)), cu соухъ (“dry”). a doublet of sear and sare.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA