"Servít je vůl" (''Servít is an asshole'', literally ''Servít is an ox''; ) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

phrase which became famous as a graffiti. It started to appear in the 1960s as a students' joke in restrooms of bars in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. Later, however, it became a part of popular culture and has spread around the world, often in modified wording.

Background

The original inspiration for this phrase is believed to be ex-professor Radim Servít of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the

Czech Technical University in Prague Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, cs, České vysoké učení technické v Praze, ČVUT) is one of the largest university, universities in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in Centra ...

. He taught

elasticity Elasticity often refers to: *Elasticity (physics), continuum mechanics of bodies that deform reversibly under stress Elasticity may also refer to: Information technology * Elasticity (data store), the flexibility of the data model and the cl ...

and

strength of materials The field of strength of materials, also called mechanics of materials, typically refers to various methods of calculating the stresses and strains in structural members, such as beams, columns, and shafts. The methods employed to predict the re ...

in the 1960s and was infamous for his extensive rigour in exams. Later accounts claim the phrase refers to a different person of the same name.

Time progression and spread

Students started writing the words "Servít je vůl" on the walls of public restrooms in bars nearby the CTU campus. Thanks to the political mood in the 1960s

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ČSSR, formerly known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 to 29 March 1990, when it was renamed the Czechoslovak ...

, this graffiti has gradually spread out of Prague, the country and Europe through students and their voices. These graffiti have prevailed for generations all around the world. Some of the confirmed locations where this graffiti was found: *

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

Spisy Jaroslava Putíka, Nakladatelství Hynek, Prague 1996, vol. 1, 261 pages. Lidové noviny 63/1997 *

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...

Marek Kerles
Jazykovědce trápí "volování"
Český a slovenský svět, 2005 * a

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

train station * a

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

station *

Gerlachovský štít Gerlachovský štít (, translated into English as ''Gerlachov Peak'', German: ''Gerlsdorfer Spitze'', Hungarian: ''Gerlachfalvi-csúcs''), informally referred to as Gerlach, is the highest peak in the High Tatras, in Slovakia, and in the Carpat ...

* a train station in Nesebar, Bulgaria * restrooms in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

* a corridor of the canteen in the Soviet polar station Mirny in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

Disman, M. (2006): ''Jak se vyrábí sociologická znalost'', Praha, Univerzita Karlova v Praze a Nakladatelství Karolinum, 3rd edition, , p. 310 As time progressed, various new versions of the phrase were created, for example: "Doopravdy nejsem vůl, Servít" (''I'm really not an asshole, Servít''), "Všichni jste volové! Servít" (''You are all assholes! Servít''), "Promiň Servíte jsou i větší volové" (''Sorry Servít, there are bigger assholes than you'') and so on.

References

External links

* Jiří Reinsberg
Moje archa úmluvy V. – bral jsem život zvesela
(přepis záznamu vyprávění na webu christnet.cz)
wiki Servít
(heslo na wiki ČWUT)
Servít je vůl a Kyselák po skalách leze
časopis Speleo, č. 32, 2000, author -wc- * Ivan Kolařík
Úvaha o kantorech
(Světácké střípky smyslného seniora, díl 16), web Pozitivní noviny, 28. 3. 2007 {{in lang, cs Graffiti and unauthorised signage Czech words and phrases

Background

Time progression and spread

See also

References

External links