servant
UK /ˈsɜːvənt/ · US /ˈsɝvənt/ noun, verb
Forms servants servanting servanted servaunt servand
- noun 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.”
- noun 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.”
- noun (religion) A person who dedicates themselves to God.
- noun (obsolete) A professed lover.
- noun A person of low condition or spirit.
- verb (obsolete, transitive) To subject.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English servaunt, from Old French servant, from the present participle of the verb servir. Doublet of sergeant and servient. Morphologically serve + -ant. Displaced native Old English þeġn.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One who serves, or does services, voluntarily or on compulsion; a person who is employed by another for menial offices, or for other labor, and is subject to his command; a person who labors or exerts himself for the benefit of another, his master or employer; a subordinate helper. "A yearly hired servant." Lev. xxv. 53.
- noun One in a state of subjection or bondage.
- verb To subject. [Obs.] Shak.
Etymology [OE. servant, servaunt, F. servant, a & p. pr. of servir to serve, L. servire. See Serve, and cf. Sergeant.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “servant”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details