servile

From Middle English servyle, from Old French servil, servile, from Latin servīlis, from servus (“slave”). By surface analysis, serve +‎ -ile.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜː(ɹ)ˌvaɪl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsəɹ.vəl/, /ˈsəɹˌvaɪl/

servile (comparative more servile, superlative most servile)

1. Excessively eager to please; obsequious.
   • 2021, Ed Vulliamy, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     British “subjects” (not citizens, note) are just that: gleefully servile to the monarchy’s institutionalised inequality...

2. Slavish or submissive.

   Synonym: abject

   Antonyms: arrogant, authoritarian

   servile flattery    servile obedience

   1. Of or pertaining to a slave.
   • c. 1699 – 1703, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius His Thebais”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC:

     Even fortune rules no more, O servile land!

3. (grammar) Not belonging to the original root.

   a servile letter

4. (grammar) Not sounded, but serving to lengthen the preceding vowel, like the e in tune.

• serve
• servant
• slave

servile (plural serviles)

1. (grammar) An element which forms no part of the original root.
2. A slave; a menial.

• radical

• leviers, relives, reviles, veilers

Borrowed from Latin servīlis.

• IPA^(key): /sɛʁ.vil/

servile (plural serviles)

1. servile, slavish, subservient

• serf
• servilement
• servilité
• servir

• “servile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• leviers, lièvres, livrées

Borrowed from Latin servīlis.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /serˈvi.le/^[2]
• Rhymes: -ile
• Hyphenation: ser‧vì‧le

servile m or f by sense (plural servili, adverb servilmente)

1. servile
2. (grammar) modal (of verbs, auxiliaries, etc.)

   Synonym: modale

   verbo servile ― modal verb

• servile in Treccani.it – Sinonimi e Contrari (2003), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

From servi +‎ -le.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛr.vi.le/^[2]
• Rhymes: -ɛrvile
• Hyphenation: sèr‧vi‧le

servile

1. compound of servi, the second-person singular imperative form of servire, with le

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [sɛrˈwiː.ɫɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [serˈviː.le]

servīle

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of servīlis

• servīliter

servile

1. alternative form of servyle

servile

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of servir combined with le