servitor
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English servitour, borrowed from Latin servītor, from servīre, present active infinitive of serviō (“I serve”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
servitor (plural servitors)
- One who performs the duties of a servant.
- 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 89:
- The button-covered servitor had no doubt but that his sovereign's answer would be in reply, "Then he may go;" but he was mistaken, for Lady Anne had discovered that she looked well in her beautiful lace nightcaps, as most people do when their flesh has fallen away, and they are verging to the lantern jaw;...
- 1885, Percival Lowell, “On Hats”, in Chosön: The Land of the Morning Calm: A Sketch of Korea, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Company, →OCLC, page 346:
- Several days passed by, and to all appearance we had quite forgotten our poor old servitor, – so heartless in remembrance is weak humanity to its nearest and dearest, – when, in course of time, it got to be New Year's eve, and we were sitting in our study, awaiting the cook's preparations for dinner, when suddenly we heard a noise as of much tramping.
- 1927, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 200, page 150:
- He heard Rogers' voice raised in the reception room; he stepped to the doorway and saw his servitor arguing with an elderly and trampish man who had got in somehow.
- One who serves in an army; a soldier.
- (historical) An undergraduate who performed menial duties in exchange for financial support from his college, particularly at Oxford University.
Quotations edit
- 1884, W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida
- "You'll find no sizars here, or servitors/or other cruel distinctions meant to draw/a line 'twixt rich and poor"
- 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 22
- The servitors waxed silent, each lost in introspection, until the rattle of the Valmouth cab announced the expected guest.
Anagrams edit
Latin edit
Etymology edit
From servus (“slave”) + -tor.
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /serˈu̯iː.tor/, [s̠ɛrˈu̯iːt̪ɔr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /serˈvi.tor/, [serˈviːt̪or]
Noun edit
servītor m (genitive servītōris); third declension
Declension edit
Third-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | servītor | servītōrēs |
Genitive | servītōris | servītōrum |
Dative | servītōrī | servītōribus |
Accusative | servītōrem | servītōrēs |
Ablative | servītōre | servītōribus |
Vocative | servītor | servītōrēs |
Descendants edit
References edit
- “servitor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- servitor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Romanian edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French serviteur, Italian servitore, Latin servītor, equivalent to servi + -tor.
Noun edit
servitor m (plural servitori, feminine equivalent servitoare)