‖ Seres, n. pl.
(ˈsɪəriːz)
[L. Sērēs (Gr. σῆρες), whence sēricum silk.]
The name of a people anciently inhabiting some part of Eastern Asia (prob. China), whose country was believed to be the original home of silk. Hence † the Seres' wool, silk.
| a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 3956 A sertane folke was in þat soile þat Serres ere callid, And all þe lyndis in þat land with leves as wolle. 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 388 Yet often⁓times the softnesse of Wooll, which the Seres sende, sticketh so fast to the skinne, that..it fetcheth bloud. 1587 Greene Euphues' Censure (1634) C 4 b, A worme that fretteth like the Seres woole. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 169 How the Seres spin Their fleecy forests in a slender twine. 1842 Smith's Dict. Grk. & Rom. Antiq. s.v. Sericum, Many of those [silks] produced by the industry and taste of the Seres. |