Anellipsis from the commoners’ greeting once said tofeudal lords,"servushumillimus [,Dominespectabilis]", inLatin meaning "(I am your) most humble servant[, (O/my) noble lord]".
- IPA(key): /ˈse̞ɐ̯vus/,/ˈse̞ɐ̯βus/
- Hyphenation:ser‧vus
servus
- (informal)hello,hi
- (informal)bye,goodbye
The greeting evolved by the commoners greeting their lords with the wordsservus humillimus, Domine spectabilis, meaningyour humble servant, my noble lord. Nosubservience is implied in its modern use.
servus
- (colloquial)hi,hiya
- Synonym:ahoj
- (colloquial)cheerio,bye,so long,ta-ta
- Synonym:ahoj
- “servus”, inPříruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech),1935–1957
- “servus”, inSlovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech),1960–1971, 1989
servus
- conditional ofservi
Anellipsis from the commoners’ greeting once said tofeudal lords,"servushumillimus [,Dominespectabilis]", inLatin meaning "(I am your) most humble servant[, (O/my) noble lord]".
servus
- (chiefly Southern Germany, Austria, informal)hello,hi
- (chiefly Southern Germany, Austria, informal)goodbye,bye,farewell
- (as a toast)cheers
- Nosubservience is implied in modern use, and the origin of the term is not commonly known. Educated usage may besincere,jocular orironic.
- Thissalutation is used in Southern Germany and throughout the formerAustria-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 ofdecorum is dependent on context of region, dialect, class, or even village.
- “servus” inDuden online
- “servus” inDigitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
Seeszervusz.
- IPA(key): [ˈsɛrvus]
- Hyphenation:ser‧vus
- Rhymes:-us
servus
- (archaic)Alternative form ofszervusz:hello;goodbye
- szervusz in Géza Bárczi,László Országh,et al., editors,A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962.Fifth ed., 1992:→ISBN.
FromOld Latinservos, fromProto-Italic*serwos(“guardian”), fromProto-Indo-European*ser-wo-s(“guardian”), possibly from*ser-(“watch over, protect”). Cognate withservō,Avestan𐬵𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌(haraiti,“he heeds, protects”).[1] Bysurface analysis,Proto-Indo-European*ser- +-vus.
servus m (genitiveservī,feminineserva);second declension
- aslave
- aserf
- aservant
- Until the Augustan period,servos was more common.
Second-declension noun.
- “servus²”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- servus² inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette: “1,432/2”
- “seruus¹” on page 1,748/1 of theOxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
- Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976) “servus”, inMediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus,Leiden,Boston:E. J. Brill, page967/2
servus (feminineserva,neuterservum);first/second-declension adjective
- slavish,servile (to the senses or to authority)
- (of lands, buildings)subject orliable toservitude
First/second-declension adjective.
- “servus”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “servus”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "servus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’sGlossarium 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 orcondicio servorum
- (ambiguous) to examine slaves by torture:de servis quaerere (in dominum)
- “servus”, inHarry Thurston Peck, editor (1898),Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “servus”, inWilliam Smith et al., editor (1890),A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
- ^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 fromGermanservus. Greeting found throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
servus(informal, Transylvania, Maramureș, Bukovina)
- hi,hello
- see you (later)
FromGermanservus, ultimately fromLatinservus.
sèrvus (Cyrillic spellingсѐрвус)
- (Croatia, dated)hello
- (Croatia, dated)good bye
The greeting evolved by the commoners greeting their lords with the wordsservus humillimus, Domine spectabilis, meaningyour humble servant, my noble lord. Nosubservience is implied in its modern use.
servus
- hello
- hi
- howdy
- “servus”, inSlovníkový 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
