servi

Forms

servi (third-person singular present servește, past participle servit) 4th conjugation^[1] The 19th century also had an older present without -esc: „Comparațiuni abundente… serv a lumina” “abundant comparisons … serve to illuminate” (Aristia), and „Locașul meu servă iarna adesea de adăpost” “my dwelling often serves as a shelter in winter” (Sion).^[2][3] Regional variants are sărvi, sârvi and șervi.^[3][2] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written серви.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French servir, a 19th-century neologism.^{[4][3][5][2][6][1]} The neologism dictionary of Marcu and Maneca names Italian servire and Latin serviō beside the French verb, and the Latinist dictionaries of the period gave the Latin as its source under the headword servire.^[7][8][9] The French verb continues that Latin verb, “to be a slave, to serve”, which is formed on servus (“slave”).^[10][11] Graur counts it among the Romanian descendants of the Latin family, as a neologism beside the inherited șerb “serf” and serba.^[12] Wiktionary compares the inherited doublet șerbi.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1810.^[5] The earliest quotation in the Academy dictionary, from Ion Heliade-Rădulescu, uses it intransitively, “to serve as a means”: signs „ce servia mai mult spre aducerea aminte” “which served rather as reminders”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of neologisms (1848) glosses it with the native sluji: to be a servant, a soldier or a civil servant, and to render services to someone.^[8] The sense “to be used for, serve as” was common from the start;^[2][5] Costache Negruzzi wrote that an innocent story „servi de pretext” “served as a pretext” to close a newspaper.^[2][5]

At table it means “to serve food, to offer someone something to eat or drink”, and reflexively “to help oneself”.^[4][5] Later senses are “to serve customers” in a shop, “to put the ball into play” in ball games and cards, and figuratively “to hand someone (bad news, a lesson)”.^[4][3] In thieves' slang it means “to steal”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1810 – the first record.^[5]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, as servire.^[8]
• 1862 – Pontbriant's dictionary, transitive and reflexive.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To serve: to carry out duties or tasks for someone;^[4][1] (intransitive) to work as a servant or in a service; to work in someone's interest, to support; to be useful to someone.^[4][1]
2. (intransitive, of things) To be used for, to serve as;^[4][6] (reflexive, of people) to make use of.^[4][6]
3. (transitive) To bring food or drink to the table; to offer someone food;^[4][1] (reflexive) to help oneself.^[4][1]
4. (of shop assistants or clerks) To attend to customers; to provide a service.^[4][3]
5. (figurative) To hand someone news, a reproof or a lesson.^[4][3]
6. (sports, card games) To put the ball or the cards into play; to pay out an annuity.^[4]
7. (thieves' slang) To steal.^[13]

Word family

• servire
• servit

Related words

• serv
• servici
• servil
• servitor
• serviciu
• șerb
• French servir
• Latin serviō

Usage notes

The informal a i-o servi cuiva means “to tell someone unpleasant truths bluntly”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. servi
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 865
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1009
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. servi
6. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. servi
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. servi
8. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. servire
9. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 671
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. servir
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 91
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. servi