Where does “serve” come from?
serve (Middle English) comes from Old English syrfe, from Vulgar Latin sorbea, from Latin sorbus, from Indo-European *ser-.
serve (Middle English): sorb apple, serviceberry
Ancestry of “serve”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old English | syrfe | — |
| 2 | Vulgar Latin | sorbea | — |
| 3 | Latin | sorbus | sorb; service tree; "Sorbus domestica" |
| 4 | Indo-European | *ser- | — |
Words derived from “serve”