Words: sere [MW]

Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English sEar dry; akin to Old High German sOrEn to wither, Greek hauos dry, Lithuanian sausas
1 : being dried and withered
2 archaic : THREADBARE

(Normally I already know and love the words I present under Words, but today I ran across this word for the first time ever -- twice -- first in Leon Hale's Sunday column quoting a poem by William Bryant Cullen and then on COPYEDITING-L, citing a poem by Emily Dickinson.)