Etymologically
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servant

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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

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