Server

How to spell server

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce server

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does server mean?

1. nounA computer or program that provides data, files, or services to other machines on a network.
2. nounA person who takes orders and brings food and drink to customers in a restaurant.
3. nounA utensil used for lifting and dishing out food at the table.

Server in a sentence

• The company moved its email to a cloud server last month.

• The server recommended the salmon and refilled our water glasses.

• She set a silver cake server beside the dessert plates.

• The website went offline because the server crashed during the update.

• She worked as a server at a busy diner to pay for college.

• The salad server slipped from the bowl onto the tablecloth.

Where does server come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb servire, meaning 'to serve' or 'to be a slave', which itself grew from servus, the Latin noun for a slave or servant. That verb passed into Old French as servir and entered English in the medieval period, after which the native agent suffix -er was attached to give 'server', literally 'one who serves'. For centuries it meant simply a person who waited on others, whether at table, at Mass, or at court. The modern computing sense is much younger, coined in the twentieth century for a machine or program that 'serves' data or resources to other computers on request, a neat metaphorical extension of the original idea. The same servire root sits inside everyday relatives such as service, servant, and serve itself, which is why the spelling keeps that steady serv- core before the unstressed -er ending.

How the word is built

• serv- (from Latin servire: to serve)
• -er (agent suffix: one who, or thing that, serves)