different between service vs observance

English

Alternative forms

• seruice (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s??v?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?v?s/

Etymology 1

From Middle English servise, from Old French servise (French service), from the verb servir, from Latin servitium (compare Portuguese serviço, Italian servizio, Norman sèrvice, Spanish servicio), from servus (“servant; serf; slave”). Displaced native Old English þe?nung.

Noun

service (countable and uncountable, plural services)

1. An act of being of assistance to someone.
2. (economics) The practice of providing such a service as economic activity.
3. A department in a company, an organization, a government department, etc.
4. (computing) A function that is provided by one program or machine for another.

5. The state of being subordinate to or employed by an individual or group

6. The military.

7. A set of dishes or utensils.
   • 1997, Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Monthly Review Press, page 36:

     When their lavish fiestas ended they threw the silver service and even golden vessels from their balconies to be picked up by lucky passersby.

8. (sports) The act of initially starting, or serving, the ball in play in tennis, volleyball, and other games.

9. A religious rite or ritual.

10. (law) The serving, or delivery, of a summons or writ.
    • 1668 July 3, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Hou?toun” in The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 548:

      He Su?pends on the?e Rea?ons, that Thomas Rue had granted a general Di?charge to Adam Mu?het, who was his Conjunct, and correus debendi, after the alleadged Service, which Di?charged Mu?het, and con?equently Houstoun his Partner.

11. (Israel, West Bank, also in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) A taxi shared among unrelated passengers, each of whom pays part of the fare; often, it has a fixed route between cities.
12. A musical composition for use in churches.
13. (obsolete) Profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed.
14. (nautical) The materials used for serving a rope, etc., such as spun yarn and small lines.
15. Access to resources such as hotel rooms and web-based videos without transfer of the resources' ownership.

Usage notes

In British English, the indefinite article "a" is often used with “good service”, as in "A good service is operating on all London Underground lines", whereas this is not used in American English.

Antonyms

• (action or work that is produced and consumed): good
• capital

Derived terms

Related terms

• service à la française
• service à la russe

Translations

Verb

service (third-person singular simple present services, present participle servicing, simple past and past participle serviced)

1. (transitive) To serve.

2. (transitive) To perform maintenance.

3. (public relations, transitive) To supply (media outlets) with press releases etc.
   • 1977, Patricia Marshall, Citizen Participation Certification for Community Development (page 107)

     One obvious way is press releases, which should be sent to your region's reporters, editors and columnists, the wire services, professional publications. […] Servicing the media should be an everyday thing.

   • 1971, College and University Journal (volumes 10-11, page 9)

     […] instead of expending so much of their PR effort on servicing the media.

4. (transitive, agriculture, euphemistic) To inseminate through sexual intercourse.
5. (transitive, vulgar) To perform a sexual act upon.

6. (transitive, military, euphemistic) To attack.

   to service a target; target servicing

Synonyms

• (to serve): attend, wait on; See also Thesaurus:serve
• (to perform a sexual act): be with, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Descendants

• ? Dutch: service
  • ? Indonesian: servis
• ? German: Service
• ? Hindi: ?????? (sarvis)
• ? Hungarian: szerviz
• ? Japanese: ???? (s?bisu)
• ? Korean: ??? (seobiseu)
• ? Russian: ?????? (servis)
• ? Ukrainian: ?????? (servis)

Translations

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

service (plural services)

2. Service tree.

Translations

Anagrams

• cerevis, scrieve

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English service.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ser?vice

Noun

service f or m (plural services)

1. service

French

Etymology

From Old French servise, borrowed from Latin servitium (compare Portuguese serviço, Italian servizio, Norman sèrvice, Spanish servicio), from servus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??.vis/

Noun

service m (plural services)

1. service
2. (tennis) service
3. (Switzerland, in the plural) cutlery

Derived terms

Related terms

• servir
• servant
• serf

Interjection

service

1. (Switzerland) you're welcome

Further reading

• “service” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• écrives

Norman

Alternative forms

• sèrvice (Jersey)

Etymology

From Old French servise, (compare French service), borrowed from Latin servitium, from servus.

Noun

service m (plural services)

1. (Guernsey) service

Old French

Noun

service m (oblique plural services, nominative singular services, nominative plural service)

1. Alternative form of servise

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

service c

1. service, the level of comfort offered by assistants and servants (the opposite of self-service)
2. maintenance and repair

Declension

Related terms

See also

• servis
• tjänst

English

Alternative forms

• observancy (obsolete)
• observaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French observance, from Latin observantia. Equivalent of observe +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: ?b-zûr?v?ns, IPA^(key): /?b?z?v?ns/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?z??v?ns/
• Hyphenation: ob?ser?vance

Noun

observance (countable and uncountable, plural observances)

1. The practice of complying with a law, custom, command or rule.
2. The custom of celebrating a holiday or similar occasion.
3. Observation or the act of watching.
4. (religion) A rule governing a religious order, especially in the Roman Catholic church.
5. That which is to be observed.
6. Reverence; homage.

Antonyms

• misobservance

Derived terms

• hyperobservance
• misobservance

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p.s??.v??s/

Noun

observance f (plural observances)

1. observance

Related terms

• observable
• observant
• observateur
• observer

References

• “observance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).