serif
The origin and history of serif.
Etymology
The origin of serif is not fully settled. It seems to build on older English spellings such as ceriph and seriph, which may in turn trace back to Dutch, either from schreef, meaning a stroke or line, or from a verb describing the shading of letters with fine lines. Some accounts instead point to a Late Latin word for waxen, linked to the ruled lines once used on wax writing tablets.
