servility (n.)

late 14c., "laborious, subordinate, appropriate to a servant or to the class of slaves," originally in reference to work that it is forbidden to do on the Sabbath, from Latin servilis "of a slave" (as in Servile Wars, name given to the slave revolts in the late Roman Republic), also "slavish, servile," from servus "slave" (see serve (v.)). Related: Servilely.

By mid-15c. as "of the rank of a servant; of or pertaining to servants;" the sense of "cringing, fawning, mean-spirited, lacking independence" is recorded from c. 1600 The earliest sense in English was Church-legal, servile work being forbidden on the Sabbath. The phrase translates Latin opus servilis, itself a literal translation of the Hebrew words.

word-forming element making abstract nouns from adjectives and meaning "condition or quality of being ______," from Middle English -ite, from Old French -ete (Modern French -ité) and directly from Latin -itatem (nominative -itas), suffix denoting state or condition, composed of -i- (from the stem or else a connective) + the common abstract suffix -tas (see -ty (2)).

Roughly, the word in -ity usually means the quality of being what the adjective describes, or concretely an instance of the quality, or collectively all the instances; & the word in -ism means the disposition, or collectively all those who feel it. [Fowler]