Serer People - Ethnonym

Ethnonym

The meaning of the word "Serer" is uncertain. Issa Laye Thiaw views it as possibly pre-Islamic and suggests four possible derivations:

1. From the Serer Wolof word reer meaning 'misplaced', i.e. doubting the truth of Islam.
2. From the Serer Wolof expression seer reer meaning "to find something hidden or lost."
3. From "the Arabic word seereer meaning sahir magician or one who practices magic (An allusion to the traditional religion)".
4. From a Pulaar word:meaning separation, divorce, or break, again referring to refusing Islam.

Another author, Dennis C. Galvan of the University of Oregon, believes the derivation of the name reflects the origin of the Serer in about the 11th century CE as a part of a culture living in the Futa Tooro that refused Islam, split from the main group and migrated. He writes that "The term Serer is most probably a derivative of the Pulaar term sererabe, meaning to separate or to divorce."