waitress

Etymology

It is formed from English waiter + -ess.^[2][3][4][5] Waiter is an agent noun from wait,^[3] which comes from Anglo-Norman waitier (“to watch”) (Old French gaitier), from Frankish *wahtōn or another Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *waht-.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A waiting-maid or handmaid: about 1595, in the Countess of Pembroke's version of Psalm 123, a sense the OED and the Shorter Oxford find only then.^[2][5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1580–90.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, a woman who serves guests at a hotel or restaurant, is first recorded in 1834, in Drakard's Stamford News,^[2] the date Etymonline and Merriam-Webster give for the word.^[3][4] It followed waiter, which had meant a servant who waits at table since the late 15th century, and an attendant at inns and eating houses since the 1660s.^[3] In American English it was also used, from 1875 in Harriet Beecher Stowe, of a maid in a private house who waits at table.^[2] The verb, to work as a waitress, is recorded from 1974,^[2] though Etymonline finds waitressing by 1936.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1595 – a waiting-maid, handmaid (obsolete).^[2][5]
• 1834 – a woman who serves guests at a hotel or restaurant.^[2][3][4]
• 1875 – US, a maid in a private house who waits at table.^[2]
• 1936 – waitressing, according to Etymonline.^[3]
• 1974 – verb, to work as a waitress.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman who serves food and drink to people at their tables, as in a restaurant or café: The waitress brought us two bowls of soup.^[7][4][2]
2. (chiefly US, dated) A maid in a private house whose job is to wait at table.^[2]

Verb

1. To work as a waitress: She waitressed through college.^[7][4][2]

Related words

• lady-in-waiting
• waiter
• wait

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins