Servile means fawning and slavishly obedient. Servile flattery, a servile manner, servile to power.
It is one of the harshest words for behaviour, since it says somebody has given up their standing voluntarily. The Latin is the word for a slave, which is where all of that weight comes from.
1adjectiveservileFawning and slavishly obedient.
“The waiter's servile manner made the guests feel uncomfortable.”
servile is a quality.
Latin servilis comes from servus, a slave.
Proto-Indo-European
*ser- (guard)
Latin
servīlis
Old French
servil
Middle English
servyle
English, today
servile
Built from
From Middle English servyle, from Old French servil, servile, from Latin servīlis, from servus (“slave”). by surface analysis, serve + -ile.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA