serve

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /sɜːv/, US /sɝːv/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English serven,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French servir (“to do duty toward; to serve at table; to provide”),^[4][2] from Latin servīre (“to be a slave, serve, be of use”),^[4][2][3] from servus (“slave, servant”),^[4][2] which is of uncertain origin.^[4] It is perhaps from Etruscan, compare the Etruscan names Servi and Serve,^[4][2][3] but de Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *serwo- “shepherd”, from Proto-Indo-European *seruo- (“guardian”), which in Italy took a pejorative turn to “slave”.^[4] The noun is from the verb.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give service to, be useful to: about 1175 in Barnhart,^[2] the late 12th century in Etymonline, as “to render obedience to, owe allegiance to; to minister, give aid”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

By about 1200 the verb had widespread senses: to be in someone's service, to attend as a personal servant, to be a slave, and to officiate at Mass.^[4] To set food on the table is from the early 13th century,^[4] and to wait on customers from the mid-14th century.^[4] “To meet the needs of, take the place of”, as in Shakespeare's “One turf shall serve as pillow for us both”, is first in Trevisa (1387).^[2] “To treat someone in some way” is from the late 14th century, and serve someone right from the 1580s.^[4] In tennis the noun is from 1688,^[5][2] the 1680s in Etymonline, and service in the same sense from the 1610s.^[4] A helping of food is colloquial from 1920.^[5] To serve a writ or summons, to deliver it formally, is a legal sense.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – to give service to.^[2]
• c. 1200 – to be a servant; to officiate at Mass.^[4]
• early 13th century – to serve food.^[4]
• mid-14th century – to wait on customers.^[4]
• 1387 – to meet a need.^[2]
• 1580s – serve someone right.^[4]
• 1688 – noun, a serve in tennis.^[5][2]
• 1920 – noun, a helping of food.^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To work for or perform duties for; to be a servant to.
2. To set food or drink before someone; to wait on customers in a shop.
3. To do a term of duty, as in the armed forces, or of imprisonment: served ten years.
4. To be useful for a purpose; to function as: the sofa serves as a bed.
5. To put the ball into play in tennis and other games.
6. (law) To deliver a summons or writ to someone.

Noun

1. An act of serving in tennis and similar games.

Word family

• servable
• self-serve
• self-serving
• server
• servery
• service
• re-serve
• servile

Related words

• conserve
• deserve
• preserve
• reserve
• subserve
• servant
• serf
• sergeant
• dessert
• observe

Usage notes

Other, obsolete words spelled serve were an Old English noun for the service tree, from Latin sorbus, and a northern Middle English verb meaning “to deserve”.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press