servitudo

Forms

servitūdō f (genitive servitūdinis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin servus (“slave”) + -tūdō.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short think it is perhaps found only in a few passages: a manuscript reading in Livy (24.22.2), which is doubtful and which Weissenborn replaces with servitutis, and a gloss in Paul the Deacon's epitome of Festus explaining eritudo as servitudo.^[4][2] It means slavery.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The Greek–Latin glossaries render it with Greek δουλεία “slavery”.^[4][6] The usual word was servitūs, to which VoLat refers it.^[7] Late Latin servitudo is the source of English servitude, borrowed in the early 15th century through Old French and directly.^[8]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Some manuscripts of Livy have it, in a passage whose reading is doubtful.^[4][2][9]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as servitude, “slavery, bondage”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Slavery, servitude.^[4][2][5]

Related words

• servitūs
• English servitude

Usage notes

The word is rare;^[1] Wiktionary marks it as such.^[1] The common word for slavery is servitūs.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ a b VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de