servus
Czech
Alternative forms
- serbus (rare)
Etymology
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
Interjection
servus
- (colloquial) hi, hiya
- (colloquial) cheerio, bye, so long, ta-ta
Synonyms
- See ahoj
Further reading
Esperanto
Verb
servus
- conditional of servi
German
Etymology
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
Interjection
servus
- (chiefly Southern Germany, Austria, informal) hello, hi
- (ibid.) goodbye, bye, farewell
- (as a toast) cheers
Usage notes
- 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.
Further reading
- “servus” in Duden online
Latin
Etymology
From Proto-Indo-European *ser-wo- (“guardian”), possibly from *ser- (“watch over, protect”). Cognate with servō, Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (haraiti, “he heeds, protects”).[1]
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈser.u̯us/, [ˈs̠ɛru̯ʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈser.vus/, [ˈsɛrvus]
Audio (Classical): (file)
Noun
servus m (genitive servī); 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)
Declension
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
- servīlis
- serviō
- servitūdō
- servitūs
- servulus
- servus Deī (Ecclesiastical)
- servus servōrum Deī (Ecclesiastical)
Related terms
Descendants
See also
References
- “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
servus (feminine serva, neuter servum); first/second-declension adjective
Declension
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
- “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
- “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
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from German servus. Greeting found in many Central European languages.
Pronunciation
Interjection
servus (informal, Transylvania, Maramureș, Bukovina)
Serbo-Croatian
Alternative forms
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] German servus, ultimately from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin servus.
Interjection
sèrvus (Cyrillic spelling сѐрвус)
Synonyms
Slovak
Etymology
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
Interjection
servus
Further reading
- “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, 2024
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