▪ I. seraph1
(ˈsɛrəf)
[Back-formation from the plural seraphim, seraphin (on the analogy of cherubim, -in and cherub). (Perh. first used by Milton.)
Cf. G. seraph, in mod. use perh. from Eng., though Luther had in one passage used seraph (as a plural). Certain mediæval commentators on Pseudo-Dionysius, followed by many glossaries down to the Ortus Vocabulorum (1518), give seraph (genitive seraphis) as the sing. corresponding to the pl. seraphin; but the form appears to have had no actual currency in med. Latin.]
1. a. One of the seraphim.
| 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 667 Brightest Seraph tell In which of all these shining Orbes hath Man His fixed seat. 1691 Norris Pract. Disc. (1716) II. 171 Who sees Darkness even in the Angels of Light, and charges the loftiest Seraph with Folly! a 1711 Ken Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 184 The Seraphs who of all love Godhead most Had near the Throne the honourable Post. 1786 Coleridge Genevieve 4 Sweet your voice, as Seraph's song. 1816 Byron (1st) Stanzas to Augusta iv, Oh! blest be thine unbroken light, That watch'd me as a seraph's eye. 1842 Tennyson St. Sim. Styl. 166 That Pontius and Iscariot by my side Show'd like fair seraphs. |
b. fig. A seraphic person, an ‘angel’.
| 1853 C. Brontë Villette xxi, I knew another of these seraphs..she was [etc.]. |
2. Geol. A fossil shell.
Cf. seraphim 4.
| 1822 Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 153 Seraphs, a convoluted, elongated, univalved shell. 1851 Woodward Mollusca i. 106. |
3. attrib. and
Comb. (sometimes quasi-adj.
= seraphic), as
seraph-arrival,
seraph-band,
seraph-bard,
seraph-cloud,
seraph fire,
seraph-man,
seraph note,
seraph-sense,
seraph song,
seraph way,
seraph-wing;
seraph-bright,
seraph-haunted,
seraph-sent,
seraph-winged adjs. Also
seraph-tide Anglo-Irish, Michaelmas.
| 1876 G. M. Hopkins Wr. Deutschland xxiii, in Poems (1967) 59 With the gnarl of the nails in thee,..his Love⁓scape crucified And seal of his *seraph-arrival. |
| 1786 Burns ‘O Thou dread Power’ v, The beauteous, *seraph Sister-band. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. vi. xx, This seraph-band, each waved his hand. |
| 1729 Savage Wanderer v. 379 Then, as yon *Seraph-Bard fram'd Hearts below, Each sees him here transcendant Knowledge show. |
| 1949 Blunden After Bombing 49 Marbles, mosaics, carvings, *seraph-bright Paintings of wall and window. |
| 1928 ― Japanese Garland 30 Their mysteries luring that young *seraph-cloud Swan-like between the mountain and the moon. |
| 1803 Heber Palestine 32 One faint spark of Milton's *seraph fire. |
| 1958 G. Barker Two Plays 52 Lie dreaming on that *seraph-haunted shore. |
| 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. vi. xix, A man all light, a *seraph-man On every corse there stood. |
| 1814 Bowdler Hymn, ‘Sing to the Lord’, Israel's shepherds heard amazed The *seraph notes of peace and love. |
| 1928 Blunden Retreat 65 Her touch is *seraph sense. |
| 1932 ― Face of England 126 They sparkled free In *seraph-sent lucidity. |
| 1801 Southey Thalaba xii. iv, Or liker the first sound of *seraph song And Angel greeting. |
| a 1849 M. Edgeworth White Pigeon, You promised to make me a compliment of it last *Seraph-tide was twelvemonth. |
| 1818 Byron Juan i. lxxxv, For he would learn the rudiments of love, I mean the *seraph way of those above. |
| 1754 Gray Progr. Poesy iii. ii, He, that rode sublime Upon the *seraph-wings of Extasy. |
| 1821 Shelley Hellas 448 A *seraph-winged Victory. |
▪ II. ‖ ˈseraph2 Obs. [a. F. † seraph, corruptly a. Turkish sharīf: see shariffe. Cf. It. † saraffo.] A Turkish gold coin; a sequin.
| 1576 Eden Hist. Trav. (1577) 364 Three thousande Saraphes of golde. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais ii. xiv, I will give thee my Codpiece:..there are six hundred Seraphs in it, and some fine Diamonds. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Seraph, a Turkish coyn of fine gold, worth about a French crown. |
▪ III. seraph obs. variant of
giraffe.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 4 Their nourishment goeth more forward then backward, like the best horses, and the Arabian Seraph, which are higher before then behinde. |