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From earlier ceriph, ceref, of obscure derivation. There are two (not directly interrelated) candidates for a possible Dutch origin: 1.) the noun schreef (“stroke”, now also “serif” as a semantic loan), related with schrapen(“to scrape”); and 2.) the verb schrafferen(“to provide with horizontal lines, to shade”), from Italiansgraffiare. For the latter, compare GermanSchraffe(“serif”), although this again may be a semantic loan based on the English word rather than original to it. Alternatively, from Late Latin cerificus(“waxen”), from Latin cera(“wax”), after the ruled lines used in writing on wax tablets.
