Dictionary

servitor en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈsɜɹ.vɪ.tɔɹ/
• /ˈsɜɹ.vɪ.təɹ/

Etymology

From Middle English servitour, borrowed from Latin servītor, from servīre (“to serve”).

Meanings

1. One who performs the duties of a servant.
   • 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;... 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:
   • 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
   • 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. 1927, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 200, page 150:
   • 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. 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:
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.

Forms

Deriveds

servitorship · servitress