siserary

siserary

English

Alternative forms

• sassarara, siserara, sussarara

Etymology

Corrupted from certiorari (“legal writ transferring a cause to a higher court”).

Noun

siserary (plural siseraries)

1. (obsolete) A severe rebuke or scolding.
   • 1826, [Walter Scott], “Chapter 10”, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, OCLC 991895633, page 252:

     […] I retreated—retreated, Colonel, and without confusion or dishonour, and took post behind worthy Master Holdenough, who, with the spirit of a lion, threw himself in the way of the supposed spectre, and attacked it with such a siserary of Latin as might have scared the devil himself […]

2. (obsolete) A sharp blow.
   • 1771, Tobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Volume I, The British Novelists, Volume 30, London: V.C. and J. Rivington et al., p. 97,

     I ketched him in the very fect, coming out of the house-maid’s garret.—But I have gi’en the dirty slut a siserary.