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servus - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

An ellipsis from the commoners’ greeting once said to feudal lords, "servus humillimus [, Domine spectabilis]", in Latin meaning "(I am your) most humble servant[, (O/my) noble lord]".

  • IPA(key): /ˈse̞ɐ̯vus/, /ˈse̞ɐ̯βus/
  • Hyphenation: ser‧vus

servus

  1. (informal) hello, hi
  2. (informal) bye, goodbye

The greeting evolved by the commoners greeting their lords with the words servus humillimus, Domine spectabilis, meaning your humble servant, my noble lord. No subservience is implied in its modern use.

servus

  1. (colloquial) hi, hiya
    Synonym: ahoj
  2. (colloquial) cheerio, bye, so long, ta-ta
    Synonym: ahoj
  • “servus”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
  • “servus”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

servus

  1. conditional of servi

An ellipsis from the commoners’ greeting once said to feudal lords, "servus humillimus [, Domine spectabilis]", in Latin meaning "(I am your) most humble servant[, (O/my) noble lord]".

servus

  1. (chiefly Southern Germany, Austria, informal) hello, hi
  2. (chiefly Southern Germany, Austria, informal) goodbye, bye, farewell
  3. (as a toast) cheers
  • No subservience is implied in modern use, and the origin of the term is not commonly known. Educated usage may be sincere, jocular or ironic.
  • This salutation is used in Southern Germany and throughout the former Austria-Hungary (see cognates on this page), in varying frequency throughout those areas.
  • Despite the formal origins of the term, its usage is now chiefly, but not exclusively informal; the degree of decorum is dependent on context of region, dialect, class, or even village.
  • “servus” in Duden online
  • “servus” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

See szervusz.

  • IPA(key): [ˈsɛrvus]
  • Hyphenation: ser‧vus
  • Rhymes: -us

servus

  1. (archaic) Alternative form of szervusz: hello; goodbye
  • szervusz in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

    From Old Latin servos, from Proto-Italic *serwos (“guardian”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser-wo-s (“guardian”), possibly from *ser- (“watch over, protect”). Cognate with servō, Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (haraiti, “he heeds, protects”).[1] By surface analysis, Proto-Indo-European *ser- +‎ -vus.

    servus m (genitive servī, feminine serva); second declension

    1. a slave
    2. a serf
    3. a servant
    • Until the Augustan period, servos was more common.

    Second-declension noun.

    • “servus²”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
    • servus² in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette: “1,432/2”
    • “seruus¹” on page 1,748/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
    • Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976) “servus”, in Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, Boston: E. J. Brill, page 967/2

    servus (feminine serva, neuter servum); first/second-declension adjective

    1. slavish, servile (to the senses or to authority)
    2. (of lands, buildings) subject or liable to servitude

    First/second-declension adjective.

    • “servus¹”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
    • servus¹ in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette: “1,432/2”
    • “seruus²” on page 1,748 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
    • “servus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
    • “servus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
    • "servus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
    • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
      • to act the rôle of a slave, pander: agere servum, lenonem
      • a good, useful slave: frugi (opp. nequam) servus
      • a degraded, servile condition: infima fortuna or condicio servorum
      • (ambiguous) to examine slaves by torture: de servis quaerere (in dominum)
    • “servus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
    • “servus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
    1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

    Borrowed from German servus. Greeting found throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

    servus (informal, Transylvania, Maramureș, Bukovina)

    1. hi, hello
    2. see you (later)

    From German servus, ultimately from Latin servus.

    sèrvus (Cyrillic spelling сѐрвус)

    1. (Croatia, dated) hello
    2. (Croatia, dated) good bye

    The greeting evolved by the commoners greeting their lords with the words servus humillimus, Domine spectabilis, meaning your humble servant, my noble lord. No subservience is implied in its modern use.

    servus

    1. hello
    2. hi
    3. howdy
    • “servus”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025