Etymologically
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waiter

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 02:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈweɪ̯təː/[1]

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

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