maidservant
nounUK /ˈmeɪdˌsɜː.vənt/ · US /ˈmeɪdˌsɝ.vənt/
Etymology From Middle English maide servant; equivalent to maid + servant.
1
A female servant; a maid.
- Sixe dayes thou ſhalt labour, and doe all thy worke. / But the ſeuenth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou ſhalt not doe any worke, thou, nor thy ſonne, nor thy daughter, nor thy man ſeruant, nor thy maid ſeruant, nor thine oxe, nor thine aſſe, nor any of thy cattel, nor thy ſtranger that is within thy gates, that thy man ſeruant and thy maid ſeruant may reſt as well as thou.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 5:13–14, column 2:
- "A great people were they. They conquered till none were left to conquer, and then they dwelt at ease within their rocky mountain walls, with their man servants and their maid servants, their minstrels, their sculptors, and their concubines, and traded and quarrelled, and ate and hunted and slept and made merry till their time came."1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
1 more example
- But a man who holds so tightly to what he calls his rights over what he calls his debts will hold tightly also to what he calls his rights over her whom he calls his wife. No sir smile neighbour shall covet his ox or his wife or his manservant or his maidservant or his jackass. / —Or his jennyass, Buck Mulligan antiphoned.1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
- Synonyms
- servantess, servingmaid, servingwoman, servitress, servitrix, womanservant
- Related terms
- manservant
- Coordinate terms
- manservant, servingman