Etymologically
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waitress

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 06:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈweɪ.tɹɪs/[1]

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]

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