In Russian, словоерс (slovoers) is the -с added to the end of words as a sign of servility, a remnant of сударь, "sir". Captain Snegiryov tells Alyosha that only in the second half of his life did he begin to speak with slovoyers, because slovoyers is acquired through humiliation, and that he ought to have been called Captain Словоерсов (Slovoersov); Smerdyakov also speaks this way, with the -с at the end of almost every sentence.
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