Plural of seraph: the highest ranking type of angel in the Bible, described as having six wings and surrounding God's throne.
From Hebrew 'seraphim,' derived from 'saraph' meaning 'to burn,' because these angels are associated with divine fire. The word entered English through religious texts and Jewish biblical scholarship.
Medieval artists were obsessed with seraphim and drew them in increasingly wild ways—some depicted as pure flaming eyes, others as wheels covered entirely in feathers—because the Bible's description was so vague that imagination ran completely wild.
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