seraph

See also: Seraph

English

A painting of God and two seraphim from the 14th century.

Etymology

Back-formation of singular from plural seraphim, from Latin seraphim, from Biblical Hebrew שְׂרָפִים (sərāp̄īm), plural form of שָׂרָף (sārāp̄). The plural "seraphims" occurs in the King James Bible (Isaiah chapter 6).

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the singular "seraph" may have originated with John Milton, who used it in Book I of Paradise Lost (1667).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĕrˈ -əf; IPA^(key): /ˈsɛɹəf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɹəf
• Homophone: serif

Noun

seraph (plural seraphs or seraphim or (nonstandard) seraphims)

1. (biblical) A burning serpent, often winged, with human hands and sometimes feet; one of God's entourage. On Earth, they strike with burning poison; in Heaven, with burning coal. A description can be found at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 6.
2. (post-biblical) A six-winged angel; one of the highest choir or order of angels in Christian angelology, ranked above cherubim, and below God. They are the 5th-highest order of angels in Jewish angelology.
   • 1857, Herman Melville, chapter XXIII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade:

     From these uncordial reveries he is roused by a cordial slap on the shoulder, accompanied by a spicy volume of tobacco-smoke, out of which came a voice, sweet as a seraph's

Alternative forms

• saraph (rare)
• seraphim (archaic or nonstandard)

Synonyms

• uraeus

Related terms

• seraphic

Translations

high order of angels

• Arabic: سَرَافِيم m (sarāfīm)
• Armenian: սերովբե (serovbe)
• Bulgarian: серафим m (serafim)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 熾天使 / 炽天使 (chìtiānshǐ)

• Czech: seraf m, serafín (cs) m
• Danish: seraf
• Dutch: seraf (nl) m, serafijn (nl) m
• Esperanto: serafo
• Finnish: serafi (fi)
• French: séraphin (fr) m
• German: Seraph (de) m
• Greek: Σεραφείμ (el) (Serafeím)

  Ancient: Σεραφείμ (Serapheím)

• Hebrew: שָׂרָף (he) m (saráf)
• Icelandic: serafi m
• Interlingua: seraphin, seraphino
• Italian: serafino (it) m
• Japanese: 熾天使 (ja) (してんし, shitenshi)
• Korean: 치천사(熾天使) (chicheonsa)
• Latin: seraphus m
• Macedonian: серафим m (serafim)
• Norwegian: seraf (no)
• Polish: serafin (pl) m
• Portuguese: serafim (pt) m
• Romanian: serafim (ro) m
• Russian: серафи́м (ru) m (serafím)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: серафим m

  Roman: serafim m

• Spanish: serafín (es)
• Swedish: seraf (sv)
• Tagalog: serapin
• Telugu: సెరాపు (serāpu)
• Ukrainian: серафи́м m (serafým)

See also

• archangel
• cherub

Anagrams

• E sharp, E-sharp, Harpes, Sharpe, Sherpa, Spehar, e sharp, e-sharp, harpes, hepars, pasher, phares, phaser, phrase, raphes, shaper, sharpe, sherpa, shrape, sphear