subserviencen.
/səbˈsəːvɪəns/, U.S. /səbˈsərviəns/ 1. † b. In plural. Instances or occurrences of this. Obsolete.
a. The condition or quality of being subservient to an end or purpose. Chiefly with to.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > easiness > aid, help, or assistance > [noun] > subsidiary or contributory help
subserviency1643
subservience1648
1648 T. Hill Spring of Grace 22 Here is Truth and Love, that have a direct Subservience to promote the best good of Saints in their Communion with Christ.
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) 1 All this accommodation..and mutual subservience of the things in Nature.
1677 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. IV iv. 450 To order al means and affaires in subservience to his end and designe.
1793 E. Burke Observ. Conduct Minority in Two Lett. Conduct Domestick Parties (1797) 21 It was in subservience to the general plan of disabling us from taking any steps against France.
1805 A. Knox Let. 25 Nov. in J. Jebb & A. Knox Thirty Years' Corr. (1834) I. 224 All events, on this earth, are regulated and directed, in subservience to the interests of that spiritual..kingdom of the Messiah.
1884 F. Temple Relations Relig. & Sci. (1885) iv. 119 We should trace the beneficent effects of pain and pleasure in their subservience to the purification of life.
1902 97th Rep. Brit. & Foreign School Soc. ii. 95 The Practising Schools were evidently well managed, in subservience to the interests of the College.
1948 Mind 57 282 Various philosophers have suggested different concepts of adequacy [sc. of theories], such as clarity and distinctness, or subservience to a purpose.
2006 R. J. Neuhaus Catholic Matters vi. 169 Christian faith was dissipated in subservience to alien causes.
ΚΠ
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) iv. iv. 326 These Excellencies are considered..with the several Subserviences and Accommodations to their Ends and Uses.
1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. l. 402 The uses and subserviences they were fit for.
1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man ii. ii. 182 Whoever compares these Scripture Expressions and Doctrines with the various mutual Relations, Subserviences, and Uses of the Parts of the external World..cannot help seeing a wonderful Analogy between the Works of God and the Scriptures.
1802 W. Paley Nat. Theol. xii. 229 The plan is attended through all its varieties and deflections, by subserviences to special occasions and utilities.
1883 J. M. Lang Life xiii. 183 It is impossible, to trace all the mutual fitnesses and subserviences of things.
2. The condition of being subordinate or subject to another person or thing. Chiefly with to.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > [noun]
dangera1375
subjectiona1398
subalternation1483
vassalry1594
subordination1595
vassalage1595
subordination1599
subordinacy1612
subserviency1646
subjectedness1647
subservience1648
vassalation1648
subduedness1653
subordinancy1680
subservientness1727
heteronomy1798
subordinateness1876
1648 T. Hill Spring of Grace 14 I value power, and estate, learning, and all outward thing, nothing, but with reference and subservience to Jesus Christ.
1701 G. Stanhope tr. St. Anselm in tr. St. Augustine Pious Breathings 348 Grant that my sensual affections may always continue in subservience to my reasonable mind.
1786 W. Matthews Misc. Compan. 175 He may possibly find subservience to his authority, so far as it is in the nature of a swine to be at all subservient to human authority.
1836 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece III. xxi. 173 They had secured the subservience of the whole island.
1883 J. A. Froiseth Women of Mormonism xii. 146 The main topics of discussion..are the principles of polygamy, subservience to husbands, and implicit obedience to the holy priesthood.
1902 W. Bright Age of Fathers (1903) I. xv. 288 The sermon..asserted the absolute ‘subservience’ of the Son to the Father.
1966 Life 16 Sept. 104/4 Louis Sullivan, pioneering a new architecture while others borrowed, scoffed at the subservience to the past.
2011 T. M. Brown Raising Brooklyn iv. 100 Food preparation was a marker of subservience to the patriarchal hierarchy and a burden to parents, especially mothers.
3. Subservient behaviour or attitude; submissiveness, obsequiousness; servile subordination.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > humility > servility > [noun]
fawninga1350
submission?a1439
overlowness1496
servility1573
servilenessa1594
obsequency1595
obsequiousness1613
cringing1617
slavishnessa1620
vernility1623
servulating1637
suppleness1638
sneakinga1657
subserviency1669
fawningness1672
subservience1680
cringingness1695
truckling1820
obsequience1830
flunkeyism1831
servilism1831
spanielship1832
toadyism1840
flunkeydom1850
oleaginousness1853
vassalism1854
toadying1863
grovel1892
obsequity1892
crawlsomeness1900
serfishness1906
oleosity?1920
ass-kissing1936
1680 W. Petyt Britannia Languens viii. 127 It may for a while occasion greater and more frequent gratuities, and a more absolute subservience.
1778 H. E. Davis Exam. Mr. Gibbon's Hist. Rom. Empire 6 Many nations have been reduced to a state of subservience and even vassalage.
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe II. x. 164 She could not indeed imitate his excess of subservience, because she was a stranger to the meanness of mind..by which it was dictated.
1849 G. Grote Hist. Greece V. ii. xxxviii. 23 A young Persian monarch, corrupted by universal subservience around him.
1873 P. G. Hamerton Intellect. Life ix. iii. 314 Johnson..is grander in his neglect of fashion than Goldsmith in his ruinous subservience.
1902 W. L. Mathieson Polit. & Relig. Scotl. I. x. 323 His subservience to the King..was due in part to the extreme weakness of his position.
1958 G. M. Sykes Society of Captives v. 102 The real man is a prisoner who..confronts his captors with neither subservience nor aggression.
2010 Independent 17 May 4/3 Fawning sycophancy, shameful grovelling, unctuous toadying, ritual subservience.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1648