servility

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English servile

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-ts

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂tsder.

Latin -itās

Old French -itebor.

Middle English -ite

English -ity

English servility

From servile + -ity.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səˈvɪ.lɪ.ti/, /ˌsɜːˈvɪ.lɪ.ti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sɚˈvɪ.lɪ.ti/, /ˌsɝˈvɪ.lɪ.ti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

servility (countable and uncountable, plural servilities)

1. The condition of being servile.
   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 425:

     Yossarian went along in Milo Minderbinder's speeding M & M staff car to police headquarters to meet a swarthy, untidy police commissioner with a narrow black mustache and unbuttoned tunic who was fiddling with a stout woman with warts and two chins when they entered his office and who greeted Milo with warm surprise and bowed and scraped in obscene servility as though Milo were some elegant marquis.

Antonyms

• arrogance
• autonomy

Translations

condition of being servile

• Bulgarian: раболепие (bg) n (rabolepie), сервилност (bg) f (servilnost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 奴性 (zh) (núxìng)

• Czech: servilnost f, servilita (cs) f
• Finnish: nöyryys (fi)
• Galician: servilismo m
• German: Servilität (de) f, Servilismus m, (pejorative) Speichelleckerei f
• Greek: ραγιαδισμός (el) m (ragiadismós), δουλικότητα (el) f (doulikótita), ανελευθερία (el) f (anelefthería)
• Irish: uirísle f
• Italian: servilismo (it) m
• Japanese: 隷従 (ja) (reijū), 卑屈 (ja) (hikutsu), 奴隷根性 (dorei konjō)
• Latin: servīlitās
• Polish: serwilizm (pl) m
• Romanian: servilism (ro) n, servilitate (ro) f
• Russian: раболе́пие (ru) n (rabolépije)
• Spanish: servilismo (es) m
• Swedish: servilitet (sv), underdånighet (sv), kryperi (pejorative)
• Thai: ความอ่อนน้อม (th)
• Volapük: lusumät (vo)