servant English · revision 7772

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1200|origins=la servio}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈsɜːvənt/ ''(UK)''; /ˈsɝvənt/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English servaunt, [[bor|fro|servant|t=servant; foot soldier]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) a noun use of servant, serving, the present participle of servir, to attend, wait upon (see [[serve]]),^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(NODE 1998) from Latin [[m|la|servio|alt=servīre|t=to be a slave, serve]], from servus, slave.^(MW Word Histories)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ One owing duty or service to a master or lord: probably before 1200, in the ''Ancrene Riwle'';^(Barnhart 1988) a personal attendant before 1225 in the OED.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ One who serves another for wages, such as a domestic, is first recorded about 1325, in the ''Cursor Mundi''.^(Barnhart 1988) From the early 14th century it also meant a slave,^(Etymonline) and in biblical translations it often rendered Latin servus and Greek doulos, slave;^(Etymonline) in the North American colonies it was the usual word for a slave in the 17th–18th centuries.^(Etymonline) A professed lover devoted to a lady is from the mid-14th century,^(Etymonline) a sense Trench illustrates from Shakespeare's ''Two Gentlemen of Verona'' and Dorothy Osborne's letters.^(Trench 1859) A government official, ''public servant'', is first recorded in 1570.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) In the 14th–16th centuries it was sometimes confused with [[sergeant]].^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1200 – one owing service.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1325 – a paid domestic.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * early 14th century – a slave.^(Etymonline)

+ * mid-14th century – a devoted lover.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1570 – a public servant.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A person employed to perform [[domestic]] duties for another.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A person employed in public service, as by a government: ''a civil servant''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A person devoted to the service of another or of a cause.^(AHD)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[servanthood]]

+ * [[servantless]]

+ * [[servantlike]]

+ * [[bondservant]]

+ * [[underservant]]

+ * [[maidservant]]

+ * [[manservant]]

+ * [[civil servant]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[serve]]

+ * [[service]]

+ * [[servile]]

+ * [[sergeant]]

+ * [[serf]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}