#5: Sérvitur

I fancy myself to be a pretty unique and quirky person, and quirkiness loves company. I suppose that's why I met a lot of very interesting, very special people when I was in college (it's a personality trait that seems to go hand-in-hand with entomology, I've found). That's why today's word is one that I have a lot of use for-- it's sérvitur, which means "odd" or "eccentric."

Some of the most special people I know.

As with many of the words that I've featured so far, sérvitur is a compound. The first part of the word, sér-, is a common prefix that means "special" or "private." It makes an appearance in other such words as sérverslun (specialty shop), sérþjónusta (special treatment), and séríslenskur (uniquely Icelandic). It is almost certainly related to the reflexive pronoun sig (oneself), the dative form of which is sér (to/for oneself). The other part of the word is derived from the neuter noun vit which means "reason," "sense," or "intelligence" (cf. English "wit").

Therefore, someone who is sérvitur is characterized by his/her "special reason" or "self-sense." In other words, the type of person whose unique outlook on the world makes perfect sense to him/her, but which may come across as just a little strange to everyone else. Sometimes it's seen as a bad thing, but it really shouldn't be; having self-sense is much more preferable to having bland sense or, even worse, no sense!

WORD SUMMARY:

sérvit/ur, --, -t (adj): odd, eccentric

Posted in: Adjectives, Compound Words, Describing People