servant

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɜːvənt/ (UK); /ˈsɝvənt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English servaunt, borrowed from Old French servant (“servant; foot soldier”),^[2][3][4] a noun use of servant, serving, the present participle of servir, to attend, wait upon (see serve),^[3][2][5] from Latin servīre (“to be a slave, serve”), from servus, slave.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One owing duty or service to a master or lord: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle;^[2] a personal attendant before 1225 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

One who serves another for wages, such as a domestic, is first recorded about 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[2] From the early 14th century it also meant a slave,^[3] and in biblical translations it often rendered Latin servus and Greek doulos, slave;^[3] in the North American colonies it was the usual word for a slave in the 17th–18th centuries.^[3] A professed lover devoted to a lady is from the mid-14th century,^[3] a sense Trench illustrates from Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona and Dorothy Osborne's letters.^[8] A government official, public servant, is first recorded in 1570.^[2][7] In the 14th–16th centuries it was sometimes confused with sergeant.^[3][7]

Timeline

• before 1200 – one owing service.^[2]
• c. 1325 – a paid domestic.^[2]
• early 14th century – a slave.^[3]
• mid-14th century – a devoted lover.^[3]
• 1570 – a public servant.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person employed to perform domestic duties for another.
2. A person employed in public service, as by a government: a civil servant.
3. A person devoted to the service of another or of a cause.

Word family

• servanthood
• servantless
• servantlike
• bondservant
• underservant
• maidservant
• manservant
• civil servant

Related words

• serve
• service
• servile
• sergeant
• serf

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker