cidern.

Etymology: Middle English sidre , siþer , etc., < Old French sidre (now cidre ), corresponding to Italian sidro , cidro ; Spanish sidra (feminine), Old Spanish sizra . Although the phonetic history of the word in Romanic presents difficulties, there can be no doubt that it represents late Latin sicera (medieval Latin cisara , cisera ), Greek σίκερα , a word used by the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and Christian writers to translate Hebrew shēkār intoxicating liquor, ‘strong drink’, of the Old Testament, < shākar to drink deeply or to intoxication. It is not clear where or how the phonetic change fromsicera to sidra took place; but perhaps the intermediate link was sizra /sitsra/, /sidzra/: compare French ladre < Lazarus . In common use cidre had already acquired the sense of ‘fermented drink made from apples’ before it was taken into English. But the earlier sense of ‘strong drink’ generally was retained in translation of, and allusions to, the Vulgate; and in this sense the word had often forms much nearer to the Latin, as ciser , cisar , cyser , seser : these forms are not used in the sense ‘cider’: see sicer n.