housemaiden

English

Etymology

From house +‎ maiden.

Noun

housemaiden (plural housemaidens)

1. Synonym of lady-in-waiting
   • 1846 August, “Hampton Court, Past and Present”, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume XXXIV, number CC, London: G. W. Nickisson, […], page 180, column 2:

     The few rooms that were shewn were thronged by a hot crew, who had each to pay some toll to a virago of a housemaiden at each several door.

   • 1844, [Katherine] Thomson, The White Mask, volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], page 41:

     The Queen was in good spirits, discoursing with her usual volubility to all, and indifferently on every subject; for she was as able to discuss a knotty point with a divine as to teach her housemaidens a new stitch in needle work.

   • 2011, Misti Wolanski, A Fistful of Fire, page 111:

     "Are you sure you're feeling all right, housemaiden?" A maiden of King Aldrik's house—not quite a servant, but not quite a ward, either.

   • 2022, Arthur Quiller-Couch, News from the Duchy:

     Nor could he tell me anything when I questioned him concerning his haveage; which I did upon report that he was courting my housemaiden Grace Pascoe, an honest good girl, whom I was loth to see waste herself upon an unworthy husband.

2. Synonym of housemaid
   • 1914, Lewis Campbell, Memorials in Verse and Prose, page 10:

     Tell me, I pray, What has your housemaiden tidied away, She of the duster and broom?

   • 1983, Satendra Nandan, editor, Language and Literature in Multicultural Contexts, page 272:

     The archetypal image of the wife is that of the submissive, obedient housemaiden, whose sole obligation lies in looking after the welfare of her husband and her marriage.

   • 2020, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman:

     And to have a servant take up her scolding as an unpardonable offence, and persist in quitting her place, just when she had learnt all her work, and was so useful in the household—so useful that the Fräulein could never put up with any fresh, stupid housemaiden, but, sooner than take the trouble of teaching the new servant where everything was, and how to give out the stores if she was busy, she would go back to Worms.