means A computer or program that provides data, services, or resources to other machines (called clients) over a network — or, in everyday life, the person who brings your food at a restaurant.

from From the verb 'serve,' which entered English through Old French 'servir,' straight from Latin 'servire,' meaning 'to be a slave' or 'to serve' — itself tied to 'servus,' a slave. So the dining-room sense and the data-center sense share the same humble ancestor: one who attends to the needs of another. The computing meaning is a 20th-century borrowing, taking that ancient idea of dutiful service and handing it to a machine that does it endlessly, without tips.