searce

English

Alternative forms

• sarse

Etymology

From Middle English sarse, probably from Anglo-Norman cerche, *cerce, from Late Latin *circa.

Traditionally derived from Old French saas (Late Latin *saetāceus (pannus) (“(cloth) made of bristles”)), but this does not explain the -r- or the final -e of the Middle English form; intrusive -r- before /s/ is sometimes found in Middle English, but one would expect etymological r-less forms to appear alongside such forms.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɑːs/, /sɜːs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɑɹs/, /sɚs/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)s, -ɜːs

Noun

searce (plural searces)

1. (obsolete, countable) A sieve; a strainer.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Yet will our selfe overweening sift his divinitie through our searce [translating estamine]: whence are engendred all the vanities and errours wherewith the world is so full-fraught […].

Verb

searce (third-person singular simple present searces, present participle searcing, simple past and past participle searced)

1. (obsolete) To sift (through a sieve); to bolt.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 144:

     My next Difficulty was to make a Sieve, or Searſe, to dreſs my meal, and to part it from the Bran and the Huſk, without which I did not ſee it poſſible I could have any Bread. […] I had nothing like the neceſſary Things to make it with—I mean fine thin Canvas, or Stuff, to ſearſe the Meal through.

Anagrams

• Ceaser, Sarcee, crease, recase