Russian

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Etymology

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From the words «сло́воеръсъ» («slóvo ― jer ― s») from a rote memorization exercise in school spelling classes; сло́во (slóvo) and ер (jer) were the old names of the Cyrillic letters с and ъ respectively. Compare to the English ampersand.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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словое́рс (slovojérsm inan (genitive словое́рса, nominative plural словое́рсы, genitive plural словое́рсов)

  1. (obsolete) "slovoyers", ironical term for the honorific Russian suffix (-s) (an abbreviated form of су́дарь (súdarʹ), or sir) that was formerly used to emphasize the speaker’s politeness or servility before a person of higher social status.
    Synonyms: словоер (slovojer), словоерик (slovojerik)
    ...це́лую жизнь не говори́л словое́рсами, вдруг упа́л и встал с словое́рсами....céluju žiznʹ ne govoríl slovojérsami, vdrug upál i vstal s slovojérsami.I didn’t use the word ‘sir’ all my life, but as soon as I sank into low water I began to say ‘sir.’Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Brothers Karamazov"

Declension

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