searce
English
Alternative forms
- sarse
Etymology
From Middle English sarse, probably from Anglo-Norman cerche, *cerce, from Late Latin *circa.
Traditionally derived from Old French saas (Late Latin *saetāceus (pannus) (“(cloth) made of bristles”)), but this does not explain the -r- or the final -e of the Middle English form; intrusive -r- before /s/ is sometimes found in Middle English, but one would expect etymological r-less forms to appear alongside such forms.[1]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /sɑːs/, /sɜːs/
- (General American) IPA(key): /sɑɹs/, /sɚs/
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)s, -ɜːs
Noun
searce (plural searces)
- (obsolete, countable) A sieve; a strainer.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- Yet will our selfe overweening sift his divinitie through our searce [translating estamine]: whence are engendred all the vanities and errours wherewith the world is so full-fraught […].
-
Verb
searce (third-person singular simple present searces, present participle searcing, simple past and past participle searced)
- (obsolete) To sift (through a sieve); to bolt.
- 1719 April 25, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, OCLC 838630407, page 144:
- My next Difficulty was to make a Sieve, or Searſe, to dreſs my meal, and to part it from the Bran and the Huſk, without which I did not ſee it poſſible I could have any Bread. […] I had nothing like the neceſſary Things to make it with—I mean fine thin Canvas, or Stuff, to ſearſe the Meal through.
-
References
- Charles H. Livingston (December 1947), “English Searce, Search 'Sieve, Strainer'”, in Modern Language Notes, volume 62, issue 8, pages 550-554
Anagrams
- Ceaser, Sarcee, crease, recase