servitor

See also: servitör, and servitør

English

Etymology

From Middle English servitour, borrowed from Latin servītor, from servīre, present active infinitive of serviō (“I serve”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɜɹ.vɪ.təɹ/, /ˈsɜɹ.vɪ.tɔɹ/
• AHD: /sûr'vĭ-tôr'/

Noun

servitor (plural servitors)

1. 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;...

   • 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

   • 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.

2. One who serves in an army; a soldier.
3. (historical) An undergraduate who performed menial duties in exchange for financial support from his college, particularly at Oxford University.

Quotations

• 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

• overstir

Latin

Etymology

From servus (“slave”) +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /serˈu̯iː.tor/, [s̠ɛrˈu̯iːt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /serˈvi.tor/, [serˈviːt̪or]

Noun

servītor m (genitive servītōris); third declension

1. a servant, a servitor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	servītor	servītōrēs
genitive	servītōris	servītōrum
dative	servītōrī	servītōribus
accusative	servītōrem	servītōrēs
ablative	servītōre	servītōribus
vocative	servītor	servītōrēs

Descendants

• Catalan: servidor
• French: serviteur
• Friulian: servidôr
• Italian: servitore
• Occitan: servidor
• Portuguese: servidor
• Romanian: servitor
• Spanish: servidor

References

• “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

Etymology

Borrowed from French serviteur, Italian servitore, Latin servītor, equivalent to servi +‎ -tor.

Noun

servitor m (plural servitori, feminine equivalent servitoare)

1. servant, attendant, domestic, retainer, manservant

   Synonym: slugă