servus
Czech[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- serbus (rare)
Etymology[edit]
The greeting evolved by the commoners greeting their lords with the words servus humillimus, Domine spectabilis, meaning your humble servant, my noble lord. No subservience is implied in its modern use.
Pronunciation[edit]
Interjection[edit]
servus
- (colloquial) hi, hiya
- Synonym: ahoj
- (colloquial) cheerio, bye, so long, ta-ta
- Synonym: ahoj
Further reading[edit]
- servus in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
- servus in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
Esperanto[edit]
Verb[edit]
servus
- conditional of servi
German[edit]
Etymology[edit]
An ellipsis from the commoners’ greeting once said to feudal lords, "servus humillimus (Domine spectabilis)", in Latin meaning "(I am a) most humble servant, (O) noble lord".
Pronunciation[edit]
Interjection[edit]
servus
- (chiefly Southern German, Bavaria, Austria, informal) hello, hi
- (chiefly Southern German, Bavaria, Austria, informal) goodbye, bye, farewell
- (as a toast) cheers
Usage notes[edit]
- No subservience is implied in modern use, and the origin of the term is not commonly known. Educated usage may be sincere, jocular or ironic.
- Usage of the salutation in German, as well as nearby languages like Hungarian, Slovakian, and Romanian, roughly corresponds to the former borders of Austria-Hungary.
- Despite the formal origins of the term, its usage is now chiefly, but not exclusively informal; the degree of decorum is dependent on context of region, dialect, class, or even village.
Synonyms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
Latin[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- servos (archaic)
Etymology[edit]
From Proto-Italic *serwos (“guardian”), from Proto-Indo-European *serwos (“guardian”), possibly from *ser- (“watch over, protect”). Cognate with servō, Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (haraiti, “he heeds, protects”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈser.u̯us/, [ˈs̠ɛru̯ʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈser.vus/, [ˈsɛrvus]
- Hyphenation: ser‧vus
Noun[edit]
servus m (genitive servī, feminine serva); second declension
- a servant
- a serf
- a slave
- Captivi ("the captives") by Plautus (English and Latin text)
- Quem patrem, qui servos est?
- Father! What do you mean, when he’s a slave?
- Quem patrem, qui servos est?
- Captivi ("the captives") by Plautus (English and Latin text)
Usage notes[edit]
- Until the Augustan period, servos was more common.
Declension[edit]
Second-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | servus | servī |
Genitive | servī | servōrum |
Dative | servō | servīs |
Accusative | servum | servōs |
Ablative | servō | servīs |
Vocative | serve | servī |
Derived terms[edit]
- servīlis
- serviō
- servitūdō
- servitūs
- servulus
- servus Deī (Ecclesiastical)
- servus servōrum Deī (Ecclesiastical)
Descendants[edit]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- “servus²”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- servus² in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette: “1,432/2”
- “seruus¹” on page 1,748/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
- Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976), “servus”, in Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, Boston: E. J. Brill, page 967/2
Adjective[edit]
servus (feminine serva, neuter servum); first/second-declension adjective
Declension[edit]
First/second-declension adjective.
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Nominative | servus | serva | servum | servī | servae | serva | |
Genitive | servī | servae | servī | servōrum | servārum | servōrum | |
Dative | servō | servō | servīs | ||||
Accusative | servum | servam | servum | servōs | servās | serva | |
Ablative | servō | servā | servō | servīs | |||
Vocative | serve | serva | servum | servī | servae | serva |
References[edit]
- “servus¹”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- servus¹ in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette: “1,432/2”
- “seruus²” on page 1,748 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
References[edit]
- “servus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “servus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- servus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
- to act the rôle of a slave, pander: agere servum, lenonem
- a good, useful slave: frugi (opp. nequam) servus
- a degraded, servile condition: infima fortuna or condicio servorum
- (ambiguous) to examine slaves by torture: de servis quaerere (in dominum)
- to act the rôle of a slave, pander: agere servum, lenonem
- “servus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “servus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
Anagrams[edit]
Romanian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from German servus. Greeting found throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Pronunciation[edit]
Interjection[edit]
servus (informal, Transylvania, Maramureș, Bukovina)
Serbo-Croatian[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From German servus, ultimately from Latin servus.
Interjection[edit]
sèrvus (Cyrillic spelling сѐрвус)
Synonyms[edit]
Slovak[edit]
Etymology[edit]
The greeting evolved by the commoners greeting their lords with the words servus humillimus, Domine spectabilis, meaning your humble servant, my noble lord. No subservience is implied in its modern use.
Pronunciation[edit]
Interjection[edit]
servus
Further reading[edit]
- “servus”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2023
- Czech terms with IPA pronunciation
- Czech lemmas
- Czech interjections
- Czech colloquialisms
- cs:Greetings
- Esperanto non-lemma forms
- Esperanto verb forms
- German terms borrowed from Latin
- German terms derived from Latin
- German 2-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German terms with audio links
- German lemmas
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- Southern German
- Bavarian German
- Austrian German
- German informal terms
- Latin terms inherited from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin 2-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin second declension nouns
- Latin masculine nouns in the second declension
- Latin masculine nouns
- Latin adjectives
- Latin first and second declension adjectives
- Latin words in Meissner and Auden's phrasebook
- la:Slavery
- la:People
- la:Male people
- Romanian terms borrowed from German
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- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian lemmas
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- Romanian informal terms
- Transylvanian Romanian
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- Serbo-Croatian terms derived from German
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- Serbo-Croatian lemmas
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- Croatian Serbo-Croatian
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- Slovak 2-syllable words
- Slovak terms with IPA pronunciation
- Slovak lemmas
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- sk:Greetings