servatus

Servatus is a Latin term primarily recognized as the perfect passive participle of the verb servare, meaning to save, preserve, or guard. As a participle, servatus agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies and has the full adjective paradigm: servatus, servata, servatum. It can also be used as a substantive in later Latin to mean “the saved one” or “the preserved,” though this nominal usage is less common.

In classical Latin, servatus is typically used in predicate or attributive position to denote something that has been saved or protected. It can appear in legal, moral, or narrative contexts to express preservation or safety, often with the agent understood from surrounding context. In religious or ecclesiastical Latin, the form remains common as part of expressions dealing with protection, deliverance, or custody, and it is sometimes contrasted with related forms such as conservatus to express slight nuance in meaning.

In later Latin and in scholarly works, servatus is primarily encountered as an example of the passive participle paradigm and is discussed in grammar as a demonstration of participle agreement and noun–phrase interaction. It appears in dictionaries and grammars as a standard form derived from servare, illustrating how Latin participles function across different syntactic positions.

Related terms include the verb servare (to save, preserve) and other participial forms derived from it. The semantic field of servatus centers on preservation, safety, and protection, and the word participates in broader Latin expressions dealing with custody, deliverance, and safeguarding in literary and legal texts.