non serviam

English

Etymology

From Latin non serviam (“I will not serve”), used in the Vulgate to translate Hebrew לֹא אעבוד.

Noun

non serviam (uncountable)

1. A formal refusal to serve.
   • 1975, Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, OUP, published 2013, page 99:

     Two months later he issued his notorious non serviam, “A Soldier's Declaration.” He expected to be court-martialed for this, but his friend Robert Graves managed to arrange that he face a medical board instead.

   • 2013, Diane Ackerman, The Zookeeper's Wife:

     In her memoirs, she wrote that she heard him speak, but his words floated away from her; it was as if her brain, already choked by the day's horrors, had issued a non serviam and refused to absorb any more.