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serein (suh-RAN) - n., rain falling from a cloudless sky; (archaic) the supposed fall of dew from a clear sky just after sunset.
I've included the latter sense only to leave a trail for the etymology to follow: Middle French serain, evening/nightfall, from sero, late. (It's actually unrelated to serene, though this is often claimed.) This is why we say dew "falls" even when we know it doesn't -- a legend that's been dispelled but was fossilized into the language. Sereins can happen when the cloud evaporates as the raindrops condense, and so disappears by the time the rain falls to earth, or when the rain is blown by wind sheer far from its originating cloud. Compare also sunshower, of which this is a subset.
---L.
I've included the latter sense only to leave a trail for the etymology to follow: Middle French serain, evening/nightfall, from sero, late. (It's actually unrelated to serene, though this is often claimed.) This is why we say dew "falls" even when we know it doesn't -- a legend that's been dispelled but was fossilized into the language. Sereins can happen when the cloud evaporates as the raindrops condense, and so disappears by the time the rain falls to earth, or when the rain is blown by wind sheer far from its originating cloud. Compare also sunshower, of which this is a subset.
---L.
