servitor

Forms

servitor m (plural servitori, feminine equivalent servitoare)^[1] An older form servitoriu occurs in Săulescu, glossed with the native word: „acum servitoriu (slugă)” “now a servant”.^[2] MDA2 records the popular variant sărvitor, the rare serbitor and the regional sirvitor; besides the plural servitori it has a plural servitoare.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French serviteur, as DEX and MDA2 give it.^[4][3] DLR, NODEX and the neologism dictionaries also name borrowed from Late Latin servītor, and Marcu and Maneca add Italian servitore, an etymology with several possible sources.^[2][5][6][7] Scriban connects it with the verb servi as well, and Wiktionary notes that it can be analysed within Romanian as that verb with the agent suffix -tor.^[8][1]

The French word comes from Latin servītor.^[1] That noun is Late Latin, formed on serviō (“to serve”), the verb of servus (“slave”).^[9][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and DLR date the first record to 1805, in Obradovici's translated school book on the duties of subjects to their monarch.^[3] There the new word still needs a gloss: „servitori (slujitori)”, with the native slujitor in brackets.^[3][2] The sense is a person in the service of a master.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the first half of the 19th century the word was still explained by its older native equivalents: Obradovici glosses it with slujitor and Săulescu with slugă.^[2] Negulici's dictionary of new words of 1848 renders it “domestic (slugă)”.^[11] DLR quotes it for household servants from Negruzzi, Ghica, Alecsandri and Eminescu.^[2]

It also entered the polite formulas that close a letter or a speech: Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 gives „allŭ vostru servitorŭ” “your servant” and „pré plecată servitoră” “very humble servant”.^[12] DLRLC marks this use as obsolete, and in 1955 it labelled the word itself as going out of use.^[13] MDA2 also records a figurative sense, an organ or mechanism that does useful work for another.^[3]

Timeline

• 1805 – servitori (slujitori) in Obradovici's school book, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1848 – listed in Negulici's dictionary of new words, glossed “domestic”.^[11]
• 1870 – Costinescu records the polite formula al vostru servitor “your servant”.^[12]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German Diener “servant”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A servant: a person employed in someone's service, especially for housework; by extension, anyone who works for a master; a synonym of slugă.^[4][3][1]
2. (dated) In polite formulas, the writer or speaker referring to himself: al dumneavoastră servitor “your servant”.^[13][3]
3. (figurative) An organ, mechanism or system that does useful work for another.^[3]

Related words

• servi
• serv
• slujitor
• slugă
• French serviteur

Usage notes

The feminine is servitoare.^[4] MDA2 records the regional bird name servitoarea-cucului, the wren.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. servitor
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 866
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1009
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. servitor
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. servitor
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. servitor
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1192
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b 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. servitor
12. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 509
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 106
14. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 581