Real world words
Is this something invented by Martin or did it originate elsewhere?
I hate to break it to the in-universe and sci-fi/fantasy-authors-invented-this folk, but these are all real world language.
As chepner points out in another answer, "ser" is simply Middle English for the Modern English "sir", as the OED says.
"maester" is Early Modern English for "master".
It can be found in William Tyndale's 1534 translation of the New Testament, alongside words such as "faether", "moether", and "broether".
(Brooke Foss Westcott (1872). "
§ I. Tyndale."
A General View of the History of the English Bible .
2nd Edition.
London.
Macmillan, pp.
51–52) "Joffrey":
There's a huge range of ways to spell names rooted in "got" + "fridu".
Some of them can be seen at "Gotfrid" ( The Kurufin's Castle ) .
Spellings such as "Jofry" and "Jofré" are quite real.
"Joffrey" and "Robb" (a simple diminutive of "Robert") are first names that have become surnames over the past seven or so centuries, and one can find many people with these names.
There was an aristocratic Joffrey family in Vevey, Switzerland from the 15th to the 18th centuries, for example.
There's a more extensive analysis of these real world archaisms done by an OED employee: Adam Pulford (2012-04-03).
Words are wind – the language of Game of Thrones .
oxforddictionaries.com.
Other authors More specifically, was there another fantasy author that used "Ser" as a noble title?
As you have seen, plenty have used these real world archaisms.
I add one more to follow on from Nate Wells' answer: James Tiptree Jr. who used gender-neutral "Ser" and "Myr".
In Brightness Falls from the Air the appendix says: Myr, Myrrin : Myr serves for Mr., Mrs., Ms., or Miss and is often prefixed affectionately or jokingly to a person's first name or nickname.
Myrrin is the plural, corresponding to "Ladies and Gentlemen".
And a character insists upon being called "Ser" instead of "Myr", just as some people in the real world insist upon being a "Sir" when called "Mister": "
And then you are Myr … ?
" Kip addresses the taciturn man.
" Ser Xe Vovoka," the stranger corrects him.
[…] Kip recalls that "Ser" is a technical honorific, somewhere beyond "Doctor".
Not to call him "Myr".
scifi.stackexchange.com/users/21871/JdeBP
GRRM is known to be a fan of Sci-Fi Author Jack Vance .
In his " Moon Moth ", Vance uses Ser for Sir.
That may (or may not) have been the inspiration for Martin's unusual spelling:
A slave rose from where he had been squatting, touched knuckles to the black cloth at his forehead, and sang on a three-tone phrase of interrogation: "
The Moon Moth before me possibly expresses the identity of Ser Edwer Thissell?"
Thissell tapped the hymerkin, which hung at his belt and sang: "I am Ser Thissell."
"I have been honored by a trust," sang the slave.
"Three days from dawn to dusk I have waited on the dock; three nights from dusk to dawn I have crouched on a raft below this same dock listening to the feet of the Night-men.
At last I behold the mask of Ser Thissell."
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The word ser is ancient Italian and was equivalent to modern day mister.
Two works of fiction I can think of that show its usage in Italian are: The Decameron/Novel 1, 1 Circle 7, cantos 12-17 of Dante's Inferno
The UTEXAS material is particularly relevant I think because of the way they translate a verse: "Siete voi qui, ser Brunetto?"Is
it you here, ser Brunetto?
As you can see, they left ser untraslated.
Being pretty sure that they folks at UTEXAS are pretty learned, this suggests that the term ser originated elsewhere also for the English language.
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See "sir" in the Oxford English Dictionary , in which "ser" is given as a variant in Middle English (ca. 1200-1500)
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Ser is a commonly used polite form of address in Fantasy & Science Fiction.
It is generally used when the polite form of address for the individual is unknown, particularly when the sex of the individual is unknown or the society is gender neutral.
I think however, the term is undergoing a meaning shift in some cases to simply be a polite form of address for a male only.
I can not remember the first novel I encountered this term in but similar words include: Hir, Hirself, etc.
scifi.stackexchange.com/users/43680/Nate Wells
In CJ Cherryh's science fiction Alliance-Union novels (see: Mercanter's Luck, Downbelow Station, Serpent's Reach, Cyteen etc), dating back to the 1980s, "ser" and "sera" are frequently used as honorifics.
scifi.stackexchange.com/users/66581/Jennifer Tseng
Is this something invented by Martin or did it originate elsewhere?  More specifically, was there another fantasy author that used "Ser" as a noble title? I'm mainly asking because I cannot shake a feeling that I've read a book that used the word and wasn't authored by Martin, but I can't recall anything specific so perhaps I'm just conflating something with ASOIAF.
Where does the idea of replacing "Sir" with "Ser" in "A Song of Ice and Fire" come from?
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<a-song-of-ice-and-fire>
scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/85629
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Ser is a variant of Sir in the English language in the real world, and commonly used in science fiction. Originating from ancient Italian, "ser" is a variant for "sir" in Middle English and is often used in Science Fiction as a polite form of address.
"Ser" is a variant for "sir" in middle English. It is used a lot in fantasy and science fiction as a polite form of address. It originates from ancient Italian. 