seraph
noun/ˈsɛɹəf/
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).
2
A six-winged angel; one of the highest choir or order of angels in Christian angelology, ranked above cherubim, and below God.
- 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's1857 April 1, Herman Melville, chapter XXIII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, New York, N.Y.: Dix, Edwards & Co., […], →OCLC:
- I don’t mean that,—I said,—you blessed little saint and seraph!—if there’s an angel missing in the New Jerusalem, inquire for her at this boarding house!1857–1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], “(please specify the page)”, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, published 1858, →OCLC:
1 more example
- When I got there Mrs. Allan met me at the door. She was dressed in the sweetest dress of pale-pink organdy, with dozens of frills and elbow sleeves, and she looked just like a seraph.1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC:
- Synonyms
- uraeus
- Derived terms
- seraphic, seraphlike