Wiktionary

manservant

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English man servant, man servaunt; equivalent to man +‎ servant.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈmænˌsɜː(ɹ)vənt/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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manservant (plural manservants or menservants)

  1. A male servant.
    I asked my manservant to attend to the washing and cleaning.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 5:13–14, column 2:
      Sixe dayes thou ſhalt labour, and doe all thy worke. But the ſeuenth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou ſhalt not doe any worke, thou, nor thy ſonne, nor thy daughter, nor thy man ſeruant, nor thy maid ſeruant, nor thine oxe, nor thine aſſe, nor any of thy cattel, nor thy ſtranger that is within thy gates, that thy man ſeruant and thy maid ſeruant may reſt as well as thou.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      "A great people were they. They conquered till none were left to conquer, and then they dwelt at ease within their rocky mountain walls, with their man servants and their maid servants, their minstrels, their sculptors, and their concubines, and traded and quarrelled, and ate and hunted and slept and made merry till their time came."
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
      But a man who holds so tightly to what he calls his rights over what he calls his debts will hold tightly also to what he calls his rights over her whom he calls his wife. No sir smile neighbour shall covet his ox or his wife or his manservant or his maidservant or his jackass. / —Or his jennyass, Buck Mulligan antiphoned.

Synonyms

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Coordinate terms

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Translations

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See also

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