# Servus Humanitas



## ChekoCR

Good morning all,

Im trying to determine what would be the best way to say "at the service of humanity".

Researching i have found that "Servus Humanitas" can encapsulate the purpose but still gives the idea of slavery which is not the point.

Can you help me unravel this please?

Thank you


----------



## Scholiast

salve ChekoCR - consodalesque!


ChekoCR said:


> Researching i have found that "Servus Humanitas" can encapsulate the purpose but still gives the idea of slavery which is not the point.


First, dare I suspect that this "research" means consulting "Google translate"? If so, DON'T! It is dire, horrid, inaccurate and misleading almost everywhere, at least for Latin, and I suspect for other tongues too.
That apart, we need to know the context and purpose for which this enigmatic and epigrammatic phrase is to be used. Is it (for example) for a tattoo? a school or college motto? for an heraldic blazon?
Could we have some further explanation, please?
Σ


----------



## Tulliola

Not Google Translate - which I admit is awful - but offers _Ad tenuiorum ministerium hominum -_ which doesn't look right to me, apart from being clumsy!


----------



## ChekoCR

Thank you very much for your answers. 

I did use google translate at the beginning but didn't sound appropriate mainly because I looked the words separate and lost all meaning.
Then I tried with several dictionaries and got the word "servus" as a servant or slave and "humanitas" as all human beings.

What I´m trying to get is an expression that means a person whose purpose is to disinterested serve others without the slavery connotation.

As for the purpose of question, this I want to be the final sentence of a thesis I´m preparing.


----------



## Scholiast

salvete!

I see (with reference to #4). Would _humanitatis causa_ (or _humani generis causa_), "For the sake of humanity", do the trick?

Or how about trying Greek, φιλάνθρωπος (_philanthropos_), whence English "Philanthropist"? This would be conventionally latinised as _philanthropus_.

Σ


----------



## exgerman

A respectable Latin phrase, easily decodable even by those who don't know Latin, is _In servitio humanitatis._


----------



## Scholiast

salvete amici


exgerman said:


> A respectable Latin phrase, easily decodable even by those who don't know Latin, is _In servitio humanitatis._


Hmm. I think this runs into ChekoCR's primary problem with _servus_/_servire_ &c. (Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short,  A Latin Dictionary, servĭtĭum).
Can we do anything with _munus_/_munificentia_/_munerator_ &c.?
Open question.
Σ


----------

