Sereous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Thin, watery, and pale in colour, like the clear fluid that separates from blood when it clots
2. Describing a clear, thin bodily fluid resembling serum, often produced by membranes lining body cavities
3. Having the watery quality of serum, especially a pale, thin liquid secreted by certain tissues

Etymology: Before it described the watery fluid in blood, the root of this word meant whey, the thin liquid that separates from milk when it curdles. Latin "serum" carried that sense, and "serosus" in Medieval Latin meant watery or thin, like whey. French turned this into "séreux," and English took the adjective from there, so "serous" means thin, watery, or secreting a clear fluid. "Sereous" is a spelling variant of that adjective. Its ending looks like the -eous of words such as "aqueous" and "cereous," which come from Latin adjectives in "-eus," so the spelling probably followed that pattern rather than the Latin-French form. The sense is the same: a serous membrane, for example, is one that produces a clear, watery secretion. The variant spelling is much less common than "serous," and most dictionaries list it only as an alternative form.

Synonyms: serous