Etymology

cp. OIcel sér 3 pers. sg. reflex. pron. (dat.) < PGmc *sē-z, cp. Go sis.  The reflex. pron. occurs with a full set of acc., gen. and dat. forms only in Go and ON; OHG has acc. and gen., and OFris, OS and OE only the possessive adj. sīn (in OE only occasionally, mainly in verse), but a hypothetical OE dat. *sē would lack -r (cp. the 1 and 2 pers. sg. datives mē, þē with OIcel mér, þér). OIcel sér is used adverbially in the sense ‘for oneself, separately, singly’ (and cp. Dan især, Sw sär ‘particularly’).

PGmc Ancestor

*sē-z

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

sér 3 pers. sg. reflex. pron. (dat.), adv.
(ONP sik (pron. pers. refl.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far sær, Icel sér, Norw sêr, Dan sær, I sær, runic Sw saʀ, Sw i sär

OE Cognate

Phonological and morphological markers

ON reflexive pers. pronominal dative sg. <em>-r</em> &lt; PGmc *<em>-z</em>

Summary category

A2c

Attestation

Predominantly, but not exclusively, N and E in ME.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 632, 1522; WA 277

Bibliography

MED sēr(e (adv.) , OED sere (adv. and adj.2) , HTOED , Dance sere (a)(adv.), CV sér, de Vries sér, Mag. sér, AEW sīn