Probably from Dutch schreef 'stroke, line,' from schrijven 'to write,' for the small finishing strokes on typeface letters.
A small decorative stroke attached to the end of a letter's main strokes in certain typefaces.
Probably from Dutch schreef 'stroke, line, dash,' from schrijven 'to write,' from Latin scrībere 'to write.' First attested in English in an 1830 typographical manual. The origin of serifs in stone-carved Roman letters is debated—they may have been introduced by Roman stonemasons to finish off letter strokes cleanly. Key