serotine
/ˈsɛɹət(ɪ)n/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Developing at a later time or later in a season, especially than is customary with allied species; specifically (botany), of a plant: flowering late in a season.
Etymology
Borrowed from French sérotine, from Latin sērōtina, a feminine form of sērōtinus (“late (in ripening, etc.); relating to the evening”) (referring to the bats being active late in the evening), from sērō (“at a late hour; too late”, adverb) (from sērus (“late, too late; slow, tardy”, adjective); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“lasting; long”)) + -tinus (suffix forming adjectives from adverbs relating to time).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsɛɹət(ɪ)n/
- British English: /ˈsɛɹətaɪn/
Inflected Forms
Phrases
banana serotine
Cape serotine
Chiriquinan serotine
East African serotine
Isalo serotine
little black serotine
Malagasy serotine
meridional serotine