Searchable Lemmata: serc (OE), serke (ME), sark (MdE), seirch (W).
Alternate Forms: cerke, sarke, serce, sherk, sirke, suric, syrc, syric, syricas.
1(n.)
Garment;
undergarment; sleeveless tunic. Under the Benedictine Rule, monks wore a sleeveless version both during the day and as nightwear; an unostentatious garment.
The term is often used to describe the garments of poor saints in hagiography but it also appears as a garment worn under armour.(ante 900 - post 1870)
6. Genoh is munuce and ful genihtsum, þæt he hæbbe twa cugelan and twegen syricas for þære nihtware and for þæs reafes þweale; idel and oferflowend byþ eal, þæt toforan þysum is; gif hit mare bið, hit sy gewanod.
[DOE BenR (0566 (55.91.2))]
7. Þes pallium þe ic werige wyle me gelæstan, and min syric ne tosihð, ne mine sceos ne tobærstað, ær þan þe min sawl siðað of þam lichaman.
[DOE ÆLS (Thomas) (0044 (160))]
8. We þeah gelyfað, on meodumum stowum þæt ænlipugum munecum genihtsumige, þæt he hæbbe cugelan and syric; sy on wintra seo cuhle of þiccum hrægle, heo sceal beon on sumera þinne oðþe eald awered; hæbban hy eac mid to wyrcenne scapulare, þæt is gehwæde cugelan and slyflease; hæbben hy to fotgewædum hosa and meon.
[DOE BenR (0562 (55.89.9))]
Sex: Male, Female Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Back, Chest, Shoulder(s).
2(n.)
Garment;
coat of mail, often found in compounds.(1025 - 1450 ?)
1. Þa ðær wlonc hæleð oretmecgas æfter æþelum frægn: Hwanon ferigeað ge fætte scyldas, græge syrcan ond grimhelmas, heresceafta heap?
[DOE Beo (0087 (331)) ante 1025]
2. Mi a’i gwelais, lednais lyw, / Dydd anrhaith, nad oedd unrhyw, / Yng nghôr, fy ngharw, yng nghyhudd, / Yng Nghaer fardd Emrys ynghudd, / Corff mawr ar y llawr gerllaw, / A’i genedl yn ei gwynaw, / A’i wayw ar gae, gwae a’i gŵyl, / A’i emys yn ei ymyl, / A’i lem lifiad, drem drydoll, / A’i aesawr, âi i’r llawr oll, / A’i bebyll didywyll du, / Nêr, a’i faner i fyny, /A’i arwyl a’i hwyl hyloyw, / A’i guras a’i helm las loyw, / A’i seirch yn gyfryw â syr, / A’i eisiau yn ei asur.
Poetic.
[GPC GIG (34. VII. 41-56) circa 1350/1360]
Sex: Male Ceremonial: No
Body Parts:
Speculative, OE; cognate with ON serkr and going back to Germanic *sarkiz-; perhaps from Celtic (especially in the sense 'mail-shirt'; cf. Breeze (2002) and http://www.unav.es/linguis/AndrewBreeze/, accessed 06/03/2012; in this case a Brittonic adoption of a nominal form *sarcia < Latin sarcio 'patch, mend', possibly because early armour had plates or pieces patched onto a fabric undergarment). However, the sense 'shirt, undergarment' (of fabric) in the Germanic languages is more probably a borrowing of Latin sericus, -um (q.v.) 'silken', borrowed from the variant Late Latin sareca, sarica 'silk shirt, mantle'. In this case, the different meanings of the word have descended from what were originally two distinct origins.
WF:
Etym Cog: serkr (Nors).
