servant
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old French servant, from the present participle of the verb servir. Doublet of sergeant and servient.
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsɜːvənt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsɝvənt/, [ˈsɝvn̩ʔ]
Audio (US) (file)
NounEdit
servant (plural servants)
- One who is hired to perform regular household or other duties, and receives compensation. As opposed to a slave.
- There are three servants in the household, the butler and two maids.
- 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, OCLC 5661828:
- As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could.
- One who serves another, providing help in some manner.
- She is quite the humble servant, the poor in this city owe much to her but she expects nothing.
- (religion) A person who dedicates themselves to God.
- (dated) A professed lover.
- A person of low condition or spirit.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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VerbEdit
servant (third-person singular simple present servants, present participle servanting, simple past and past participle servanted)
- (obsolete, transitive) To subject.
- c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act 5, scene 2]:
- Wife, Mother, Child, I know not. My affaires
Are Seruanted to others […]
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for servant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)
AnagramsEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French, from Old French servant, a substantivized present participle of servir. Cf. also Latin serviens, and French sergent.
PronunciationEdit
Audio (file)
VerbEdit
servant
NounEdit
servant m (plural servants, feminine servante)
Related termsEdit
Further readingEdit
- “servant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
AnagramsEdit
LatinEdit
VerbEdit
servant
Middle EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Old French servant, originally the present participle of servir
NounEdit
servant (plural servants)
Norwegian BokmålEdit
NounEdit
servant m (definite singular servanten, indefinite plural servanter, definite plural servantene)
SynonymsEdit
Norwegian NynorskEdit
NounEdit
servant m (definite singular servanten, indefinite plural servantar, definite plural servantane)
SynonymsEdit
Old FrenchEdit
VerbEdit
servant
AdjectiveEdit
servant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular servant or servante)
- that serves; that fulfils a role
NounEdit
servant m (oblique plural servanz or servantz, nominative singular servanz or servantz, nominative plural servant)
- servant (one who serves)