þeowian

• IPA^(key): /ˈθe͜oː.wi.ɑn/

From Proto-Germanic *þewāną (“to enslave”). Cognate with Old Norse þjá (“to enslave”), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌸𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌽 (anaþiwan, “to subjugate, make subservient”).

þēowian

1. to serve (as a servant, slave, or devotee)
   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, Matthew 6:21

     Ne mæġ nān man twām hlāfordum þēowian: oþþe hē sōðlīċe ǣnne hātað, and ōðerne lufað; oððe hē bȳð ānum ġehȳrsum and ōþrum unġehȳrsum.

     No man may serve two masters: either he will hate one, and love the other; or he will be obedient to one, and disobedient to the other.

   fram ċildhāde Gode þēowian

   to serve God since childhood

2. to enslave, reduce to servants

• In the senses of serving another person, the person being served is placed in the dative case.

  hlāforde þēowian ― to serve a lord (hlāford is declined in its dative form hlāforde)

See þēowan (“to press”).

• þīwian, þȳwian

þēowian

1. synonym of þēowan (“to press”)

• ġeþēowian

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “þēowian”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.