Old English sear "dried up, withered, barren," from Proto-Germanic *sauzas (cognates: Middle Low German sor, Dutch zoor), from PIE root *saus- "dry" (cognates: Sanskrit susyati "dries, withers;" Old Persian uška- "dry" (adj.), "land" (n.); Avestan huška- "dry;" Latin sudus "dry"). A good word now relegated to bad poetry. Related to sear. Sere month was an old name for "August."