servil

Forms

servil m or f (masculine and feminine plural serviles)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin servīlis (“of a slave”).^[2][1][3] Corominas dates it from Alfonso de Palencia and Nebrija (1490);^[3][4] the CDH has it a century earlier, in Juan Fernández de Heredia.^[5]

The Latin adjective is formed from servus (“slave”) and -īlis.^[6][1] Rix, cited by de Vaan, takes the original sense of the noun to have been “guard, shepherd”, which in Italy turned to “slave” between 700 and 450 BC; the stem is built on a root Proto-Indo-European *ser- also found in Avestan.^[7] Spanish has the same noun in siervo and the verb in servir.^[3] The neuter plural servīlia lived on in the popular Old Spanish serviella (a vessel, in Alfonso X) and in servilla “slipper”.^[8] The neighbouring languages have Catalan servil, Portuguese servil, French servile and Italian servile.^[9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Heredia's Libro de actoridades (1376–1396) quotes Saint Augustine's City of God: condicion seruil “servile condition” is by right imposed on the sinner.^[5] In his Plutarch (1379–1384) a nature that is not seruil but lordly, and the flute despised as rustic and seruil, show the first sense, “of or like a slave”.^[5] DEMel cites the word from the Partidas of Alfonso X (1256–1265) and in a text of about 1275.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In religious use obras serviles are manual tasks forbidden on feast days: a catechism of 1325, known from a copy of 1472, lists milling, harvesting and threshing.^[5] The Autoridades (vol. 6, 1739) gives the senses “belonging to servants”, “low, humble” and, of the mind, “base”; its oficio servil is a mechanical trade, as opposed to the liberal arts, with Ercilla's Haciendo los oficios mas serviles.^[13] Salvá (1846) adds the sense, in literature and the arts, of following a model too closely, and marks as a neologism its use for an enemy of liberal ideas.^[14] The Academy's edition of 1869 records it as the nickname liberals gave to supporters of absolute monarchy.^[15] Today the dictionary gives as the main figurative sense “submitting abjectly to another's authority”.^[2][16]

Timeline

• 1256–1265 – DEMel's earliest record, in the Partidas.^[12]
• 1325 – obras serviles in Pedro de Cuéllar's catechism (in a copy of 1472).^[5]
• 1376–1396 – Heredia's Libro de actoridades.^[5]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia, Corominas's first record.^[3][4]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[17]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “seruile slauish”.^[18]
• 1739 – the Autoridades defines oficio servil.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá records the political sense as a neologism.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy records the nickname for absolutists.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to serfs (siervos) and servants (criados).^[2][16]
2. servile, obsequious: submitting abjectly to someone's authority or will: Su actitud servil con el jefe molestaba a todos.^[2][16]
3. Of work: humble and little valued, especially heavy manual work.^[19][13]
4. Following a model closely without adding anything new.^[19][14]
5. (historical) In the first third of the 19th century, a supporter of absolute monarchy; also as a noun.^[2][16]

Word family

• servilismo
• servilón

Related words

• siervo
• servir
• servidumbre
• servitud
• Latin servus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. servil
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 243
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. siervo
5. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. servil
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. servilis
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 313
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll
11. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. servil
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 100
14. ^ a b c Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 995
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 711
16. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. servil
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. servil
18. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 213
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. servil