adj. withered; worn-out; dry; barren; fruitless
Sere is a word that can be used in lots of different contexts, but its meaning always relates to something being old or worn down. This dead tree is a sere plant; my old shirt is a sere garment; my empty mind is full of sere thoughts.
We picked up speed and hauled through sere yellow farmland.
The 12:39 to Matanzas 2009He is deformed, crooked, old and sere,
Ill-faced, worse bodied, shapeless everywhere;
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,
Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.
The Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare
Etymology, working backward:
Middle English sere (dry, withered, emaciated, shriveled)
Old English sear (same meaning)
Proto-Germanic root sauzaz (dry, parched)
Proto-Indo-European root saus- (dry)
Usage, according to the Google’s NGrams Viewer (may not be perfectly accurate):
For context, note that ‘the’ usually floats at ~4%.