secern

English

WOTD – 15 December 2022

Etymology

PIE word
*swé

Learned borrowing from Latin sēcernere, the present active infinitive of sēcernō (“to put apart, divide, separate, sever, sunder; (figuratively) to disjoin, dissociate, part; to discern, distinguish; to exclude, pull aside, set aside, reject”), from sē- (prefix meaning ‘apart; aside; away’) + cernō (“to divide, separate; to distinguish, sift; to perceive, see; to comprehend, discern, regard, understand; to decide”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to divide, separate, sift”)).[1][2]

Senses 1.3 and 2.2 (“synonym of secrete”) derive from the use of the Latin word sēcernere to translate Ancient Greek ἀποκρίνειν (apokrínein), the active infinitive participle of ἀποκρίνω (apokrínō, “to set apart, separate; to choose; to reject on inquiry; to answer, reply”).[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪˈsɜːn/, /sə-/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /səˈsɝn/
Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
Hyphenation: se‧cern

Verb

secern (third-person singular simple present secerns, present participle secerning, simple past and past participle secerned) (literary)

(transitive)
1. (archaic) To separate or set apart (someone or something from other persons or things).
  Synonyms: see Thesaurus:set apart
  - 1657, William Morice, “Diatribe. Sect[ion] III.”, in Cœna quasi Κοινη [Koine]: The Common Right to the Lords Supper Asserted in a Diatribe & Defence thereof, […], 2nd edition, London: […] R[obert] Norton for Richard Royston […], published 1660, OCLC 1153689922, page 225:
    '[T]is not ſo much a local and bodily ſecerning our ſelves from evil men that God requires (as the Donatiſts falſely taught) but a ſpiritual ſeparation in mind and affections, and from their ſins, more than from their perſons.
  - 1907 October, Max Beerbohm, “‘A Morris for May-Day’”, in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, volume CXV, number DCLXXXIX, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, OCLC 24998596, page 792, column 2:
    Often a prize would be awarded to some one dancer who had excelled his fellows. There were, I suppose, "born" Morris-dancers. Now and again one of them, flushed with triumph, would secern himself from his troupe, and would "star" round the country for his livelihood.
2. (by extension) To separate (something from other things) in the mind; to discriminate, to distinguish.
  Synonyms: differentiate, discern
3. (physiology, archaic) Synonym of secrete (“to extract or separate (a substance) from the blood, etc., for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function”)
  - 1734, William Stukeley, “Part II”, in Of the Gout; […], London; Dublin: […] Theo. Jones […], published 1735, OCLC 1264952944, page 25:
    [T]he joint-glands themſelves grovv rigid, and ſecern leſs of their proper humour. Hence vvhen the gout falls upon people in years, it proves very ſevere, for vvant of a neceſſary quantity of that oleaginous matter to extinguiſh it.
  - 1794, Erasmus Darwin, “Sect[ion] XXXIV. Diseases of Volition.”, in Zoonomia; or, The Laws of Organic Life, volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], OCLC 1270980609, page 435:
    A friend of mine, vvhen he vvas painfully fatigued by riding on horſeback, vvas accuſtomed to call up ideas into his mind, vvhich uſed to excite his anger or indignation, and thus for a time at leaſt relieved the pain of fatigue. By this temporary inſanity, the effect of the voluntary povver upon the vvhole of his ſyſtem was increaſed; as in the caſes of dropſy above mentioned, it vvould appear, that the increaſed action of the voluntary faculty of the ſenſorium affected the abſorbent ſyſtem, as vvell as the ſecerning one.
    An adjective use.
(intransitive)
1. Of a person or thing: to become separated from others.
2. (physiology, rare) To secrete a substance.
  - 1631, Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century. [Experiment Solitary Touching Pilosity and Plumage.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], paragraph 680, page 166, OCLC 1044372886:
    […] Birds bee commonly better Meat than Beaſts, becauſe their Fleſh doth aſſimilate more finely, and ſecerneth more ſubtilly.

Conjugation

Conjugation of secern

infinitive	(to) secern
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	secern	secerned
2nd-person singular	secern, secernest^†	secerned, secernedst^†
3rd-person singular	secerns, secerneth^†	secerned
plural	secern	secerned

subjunctive	secern	secerned

imperative	secern	—

participles	secerning	secerned

^†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

secerned (adjective)
secerning (adjective, noun)
secernment

Related terms

concern
discern
secernate
secernent

Translations

to separate or set apart (someone or something from other persons or things) — see separate,‎ set apart

to separate (something from other things) in the mind — see discriminate,‎ distinguish

synonym of secrete — see secrete

of a person or thing: to become separated from others

Finnish: erkaantua (fi), erota (fi)

References

Compare “secern, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022.
“secern, v.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.

Anagrams

Screen, censer, scener, scerne, screen

[OED-1] Compare “secern, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022.

[2] “secern, v.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.