waiter

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as formed from Middle English waiten (“to wait”) + -er,^[2][3][4][5] from wait, which is borrowed from Anglo-Norman waitier (“to watch”).^[6] The OED instead derives the earliest uses from an unattested Anglo-Norman *waitour and Old French weitteor, also gaiteor, agent nouns of weitier, and only the later uses from wait and -er.^[7] The French verb is from Frankish *wahtōn or another Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *waht-, related to wake and watch.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who watches or observes closely, a lookout: 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[7] Etymonline gives the senses "watchman, spy" for the late 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first waiters watched: lookouts, spies, and watchmen at the gates of Scottish towns.^[7][6][3] From 1473 a waiter was also a customs officer,^[7] as in tide-waiter and landwaiter,^[7][2] while from 1551 it was a warder of the Tower of London, more fully a yeoman waiter.^[7][3] The sense of a servant who attends at meals is recorded from the late 15th century, first of household servants;^[6][4] its use for those who serve at the tables of inns and eating houses dates from the 1660s,^[6] and Hoad dates "man who waits on guests" to the 17th century.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "an attendant; one who attends for the accommodation of others".^[8] In the 17th-century London coffee houses where the Stock Exchange and Lloyd's began, waiters carried messages, and the uniformed attendants of those institutions are still called waiters.^[9][3] The sense "one who waits for an event or opportunity" is from the 1650s,^[6][7] and a salver or small tray was called a waiter from the 18th century.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1382 – a person who watches closely, a lookout (obsolete by 1687).^[7]
• 1473 – a customs officer.^[7]
• late 15th century – an attendant at a meal, a household servant.^[6][3]
• 1551 – a warder of the Tower of London.^[7]
• 1592 – waiter upon Providence, one who awaits the turn of events.^[7]
• 1655 – one who waits for an event or opportunity.^[7]
• 1660s – a man who serves at table in an inn or eating house.^[6]
• 18th century – a salver or small tray.^[4][3]
• 1755 – Johnson's Dictionary: an attendant.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, especially a man, whose job is to serve customers at table, as in a restaurant: The waiter brought us a second basket of bread.^[9][2][3]
2. A uniformed attendant at the London Stock Exchange or at Lloyd's.^[9][2][3]
3. A person who waits for something.^[9][3]
4. A tray or salver.^[9][3]
5. (archaic) A watchman or guard.^[2][7][3]

Word family

• waiterless
• headwaiter
• waitron
• dumbwaiter
• landwaiter
• waitering

Related words

• wait
• waitress
• watch
• wake

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins