maidservant

Etymology

It is formed from English maid + servant.^[2][3][4] The first element is a shortening of maiden,^[3][2][5] and the second is from Old French servant (“serving, waiting; servant”), a noun use of the present participle of servir (“to attend, wait upon”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A female servant: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, in Deuteronomy.^[2] The OED revised its date in 2000; the 1989 edition of the OED had 1526,^[6][2] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com still give the 1520s.^[3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has the 14th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has not changed, although the OED notes that a maidservant is usually a domestic one.^[2] Maid alone has meant a female servant since the 14th century.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the compound simply as a female servant, quoting Swift on "the very maidservants in a family".^[8]

Timeline

• before 1382 – a female servant.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has the 14th century and the 1989 edition of the OED 1526.^[7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female servant, usually in a household: The maidservant carried the linen upstairs.^[2][9][7]

Related words

• manservant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins