servitor

See also: servitör and servitør

English

Etymology

From Middle English servitour, borrowed from Latin servītor, from servīre, present active infinitive of serviō (“I serve”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɜɹ.vɪ.təɹ/, /ˈsɜɹ.vɪ.tɔɹ/
• AHD: /sûr'vĭ-tôr'/

Noun

servitor (plural servitors)

1. One who performs the duties of a servant.
   • 1885, Percival Lowell, “On Hats”, in Chosön: The Land of the Morning Calm: A Sketch of Korea, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Company, →OCLC, page 346:

     Several days passed by, and to all appearance we had quite forgotten our poor old servitor, – so heartless in remembrance is weak humanity to its nearest and dearest, – when, in course of time, it got to be New Year's eve, and we were sitting in our study, awaiting the cook's preparations for dinner, when suddenly we heard a noise as of much tramping.

   • 1927, The Saturday Evening Post (volume 200, page 150)

     He heard Rogers' voice raised in the reception room; he stepped to the doorway and saw his servitor arguing with an elderly and trampish man who had got in somehow.

2. One who serves in an army; a soldier.
3. (historical) An undergraduate who performed menial duties in exchange for financial support from his college, particularly at Oxford University.

Quotations

• 1884, W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida

  "You'll find no sizars here, or servitors/or other cruel distinctions meant to draw/a line 'twixt rich and poor"

• 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 22

  The servitors waxed silent, each lost in introspection, until the rattle of the Valmouth cab announced the expected guest.

Anagrams

• overstir

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Latin

Etymology

From servus (“slave”) +‎ -tor

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /serˈu̯iː.tor/, [s̠ɛrˈu̯iːt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /serˈvi.tor/, [serˈviːt̪or]

Noun

servītor m (genitive servītōris); third declension

1. a servant, a servitor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	servītor	servītōrēs
Genitive	servītōris	servītōrum
Dative	servītōrī	servītōribus
Accusative	servītōrem	servītōrēs
Ablative	servītōre	servītōribus
Vocative	servītor	servītōrēs

References

• “servitor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• servitor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French serviteur, Italian servitore, Latin servītor, equivalent to servi +‎ -tor.

Noun

servitor m (plural servitori, feminine equivalent servitoare)

1. servant, attendant, domestic, retainer, manservant

Synonyms

• slugă