secern, v.
(sɪˈsɜːn)
Also 7 secerne.
[ad. L. sēcernĕre, f. sē- aside (see se-) + cernĕre to separate, distinguish, secrete. In its physiological application (sense 2) the Latin word renders Gr. ἀποκρίνειν.]
1. trans. To separate; now only, to separate in thought; to place in a separate category, distinguish, discriminate.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Secerne, to divide, to lay or separate one from another, to sever, to chuse from among others. Bac. 1657 W. Morice Coena quasi κοινὴ iii. 148 A local and bodily secerning our selves from evil men. a 1734 North Exam. i. iii. §92 (1740) 187 An Herculean Labour which..few or none will undertake, and yet fewer be able throughout to secern the true from the false. 1836–7 Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. xxvii. (1870) II. 156 Averroes secerns a sense of titillation and a sense of hunger and thirst. 1855 Bailey Mystic 102 Whereby the good from ill they might secern. 1905 Sat. Rev. 15 Apr. 483 He knows that mimes cannot be utterly secerned from their life of mimicry. |
2. Phys. To separate from the blood; to
secrete. Now
rare.
| 1657 W. Morice Coena quasi κοινὴ Pref. 18 Humors which..being secerned and gathering head [etc.]. 1779 C. Crutwell Adv. to Lying-in Women 6 Milk..being secerned. 1822–29 Good's Study Med. (ed. 3) II. 165 An unusual proportion of bile is secerned. 1849–52 Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 1114/1 The secretion of the gland..is simply secerned from the circulating current for a time. |
| absol. 1626 Bacon Sylva §680 Their Flesh doth assimilate more finely, and secerneth more subtilly. |