sef

sef

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Cebaara Senoufo.

• Wiktionary's coverage of Cebaara Senoufo terms

• IPA^(key): /sêf/
  • (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key):

sêf m

1. safe (for money or valuables)

• IPA^(key): /sɛːv/
• Rhymes: -ɛːv

From Old Norse sef, possibly borrowed from Old Irish simin, sibin(n), from Proto-Indo-European *sem-ino?.^[1] Otherwise from Proto-Germanic *seba-, which would suggest an irregular, non-Indo-European substrate root alternation *seb-, *sem-, similar to sandr. According to Pokorny, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seyb- (“to pour, leak, trickle”).^[2]

sef n (genitive singular sefs, no plural)

1. rush (plant of the genus Juncus)

• blómsef (“three-flowered rush, Juncus triglumis”)
• dökkasef (“chestnut rush, Juncus castaneus”)
• fitjasef (“black-grass rush, Juncus gerardii”)
• flagasef (“two-flowered rush, Juncus biglumis”)
• laugasef (“jointleaf rush, Juncus articulatus”)
• lækjasef (“toad rush, Juncus bufonius”)
• móasef (“highland rush, Juncus trifolia”)
• mýrasef (“northern green rush, Juncus alpinoarticulatus”)
• þráðsef (“thread rush, Juncus filiformis”)

Inflected form of sofa (“to sleep”).

sef

1. first-person singular present indicative of sofa

From or related to Proto-Germanic *sipōną (“to trickle, drip, fall”), referring to the sap of the leaves or the moistness of places that they grow in.

sef n (genitive sefs)

1. sedge, rush

• Danish: siv
• Icelandic: sef
• Norwegian Nynorsk: siv
• Norwegian Bokmål: siv
• Swedish: säv

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “sef”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) “894”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 3, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 894

sef n (plural sefuri)

1. Alternative form of seif

From English safe.

• IPA^(key): /sêf/

sȅf m (Cyrillic spelling се̏ф)

1. safe, strongbox

From English safe.

• IPA^(key): /séːf/

sẹ̑f m inan

1. safe (a box, usually made of metal, in which valuables can be locked for safekeeping)

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

• “sef”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025

Cognate with Persian سیب (sib).

sef

1. apple

From Middle Welsh ysef, yssef, from ys (“is”) + ef (“it”).

• IPA^(key): /seːv/

sef

1. that is to say, that is, namely