servir

Forms

servir (first-person singular present sirvo, third-person singular present serve, first-person singular preterite servi, past participle servido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had the present sérvio (servho) beside sirvo, and the subjunctive sérvia (servha).^[2] Houaiss records seruir and sserujria in the 14th century.^[3] Feijó (1734) prescribes servir, not sirvir, conjugated like mentir and sentir: sirvo, serves.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin serviō (“to be a slave, serve”), written Old Galician-Portuguese servir in the oldest texts.^[3][5][1] The same Latin verb is Galician servir, Spanish servir, Catalan servir, French servir and Italian servire.^[6][1]

The Latin verb is formed from servus (“slave”).^[7][8] De Vaan reconstructs the noun as Proto-Italic *serwo- (“shepherd”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser-u-o- (“guardian”), and relates it to servō (“to watch over, keep”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[3][5] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and the cantigas d'amor and d'amigo, servir a lady is to court her as her vassal; in one cantiga d'amigo it is a daughter's duty to her mother.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval verb covers service to the king, to a lord, to God and to love, and reflexively servir-se de, to make use of.^[9][2] Bluteau (1712–1728) puts first “to be someone's servant”.^[10] Morais (1789) adds serving at table, serving God, and serving in war, in the navy and in public office.^[11]

Modern senses include to serve food and drink, to attend to a customer, to do military service, to serve as or stand in for something (a caixa serve de mesa), to be useful or good enough, and of clothes, to fit.^[3][12][1] The verb passed into Nheengatu as serviri and into Hunsrik.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cancioneiro da Ajuda and the cantigas.^[3][5][2]
• 1393 – the form sserujria.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa renders it with Latin servio and famulor.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó rejects the spelling sirvir.^[4]
• 1789 – Morais records servir à mesa and servir na guerra.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To serve: to work for a person, an institution or a cause.^[3][12][1]
2. (intransitive) To work as a servant; to live as a slave.^[3][12]
3. (intransitive) To do military service.^[3][1]
4. (transitive) To serve God, to worship.^[1][11]
5. (transitive) To serve food or drink; to attend to a customer.^[3][1]
6. (intransitive) To serve as, to do duty for: a caixa serve de mesa.^[3]
7. (intransitive) To be useful or suitable; to suffice; to be for (a purpose).^[3][1]
8. (intransitive) Of clothing, to fit.^[3]
9. (pronominal) To help oneself; to make use of.^[3][14]

Word family

• desservir
• servidor
• servível
• inservível

Related words

• servente
• serviço
• servo
• servil
• servidão
• Latin serviō
• Galician servir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. servir
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. servir
4. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. servir
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. servir
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. servir
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. servir
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 397
12. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. servir
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. servir
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. servir