manservant

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word manservant. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word manservant, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say manservant in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word manservant you have here. The definition of the word manservant will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofmanservant, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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

Coordinate terms

Translations

See also