Serve

How to spell serve

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce serve

What does serve mean?

1. verbTo work for, attend to, or provide something for a person, group, or purpose.
2. nounIn tennis and similar games, the act of putting the ball into play, or one's turn to do so.

Serve in a sentence

• verb

  The waiter will serve the main course after the soup.

• noun

  His powerful serve won him the opening game.

• verb

  She chose to serve her community as a volunteer nurse.

• noun

  A double fault cost her the point on her own serve.

Where does serve come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin verb servire, which meant 'to be a slave or servant', and which was built directly on servus, the Latin noun for a slave or bondsman. English took it in through Old French servir during the early Middle Ages, and at first it carried the literal sense of waiting on a master or rendering duty to a lord. Over the centuries the meaning broadened far beyond servitude: to serve food, to serve in an army or office, to serve a customer, and even, in sport, to put the ball into play. The same servus root quietly survives in everyday relatives such as 'servant', 'service', and 'servile', which is a useful clue that the spelling keeps the v of the Latin stem and a silent final e from its French passage.

How the word is built

• serv- (from Latin servire: to be a servant, to serve)
• -e (silent final e from French)