servingman

English

Alternative forms

• serving man, serving-man

Etymology

From Middle English servyng man; equivalent to serving +‎ -man.

Noun

servingman (plural servingmen) (historical)

1. A male servant.
   • c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], signature H,iii, recto:

     [N]ow my whole charge conſiſts of Ancients, Corporals, Lieutenants, gentlemen of companies: ſlaues as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the gluttons dogs licked his ſores, and ſuch as indeed were neuer ſouldiours, but diſcarded, vniuſt ſeruingmen, yonger ſonnes to yonger brothers, reuolted tapſters, and Oſtlers, tradefalne, the cankers of a calme world, and a long peace, ten times more diſhonourable ragged then an olde fazd ancient, […]

   • 1598, Gervase Markham, A Health to the Gentlemanly profeſsion of Seruingmen: or, The Seruingmans Comfort:

     What, ſhall Ioan haue a Seruingman: is her father ſo madd as he wyll marrie her to a Seruingman: What to a Seruingman ſayes one: To a Seruingman ſayes another: he neyther hath any thyng, nor can earne any thyng.

   • 1752, The British Stage, volume 1, page 24:

     Well! the greateſt plague of a ſervingman, is to be hir’d to ſome great Lord! They care not what drudgery they put upon us, while they lie lolling at their eaſe a-bed, and ſtretch their lazy limbs, in expectation of the Whore which we are fetching for them.

   • 1900, Amanda Minnie Douglas, A Little Girl in Old Washington:

     Madame Badeau lived in a rather shabby-looking rough stone house, quite small in the front, but plenty large enough for her and a serving-man and maid, and running back to a pretty garden, where she cultivated all manner of beautiful flowers, and such roses that lovers of them were always begging a slip or piece of root.

   • 2000, Louise McConnell, “Abram”, in Dictionary of Shakespeare, Fitzroy Dearborn, →ISBN, page 1:

     A minor character in Romeo and Juliet, Abram is a servingman in the Montague household who fights with the Capulet servants in the opening scene of the play.

   • 2015 February 15, Keith Linley, 'King Lear' in Context: The Cultural Background, →ISBN, page 78:

     We see little of Lear’s court in formal action, but there is moral cowardice in its general readiness to accede to unjust actions and say nothing. There is Goneril using Oswald to destabilize the king, Edgar’s depiction of a servingman’s life, the disguised Kent’s undiplomatic irritation of Cornwall and Regan and their spiteful retaliation.

Synonyms

• manservant

Coordinate terms

• maidservant
• servingmaid
• servingwoman
• womanservant

References

• “servingman”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present: “a male servant […] Middle English, from SERVING entry 2 + man”
• serving-man in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• “serving-man”, in Wordnik: “from The Century Dictionary. / noun A male servant; a menial. / noun A professed lover. See servant, 4.”
• Rubinstein, Frankie (1989 December 11) A Dictionary of Shakespeare’s Sexual Puns and Their Significance, 2nd edition, Palgrave Macmillan UK, →ISBN, pages 65, 294:

  2H4, v.iii.56. Shallow is with his ‘beggars all’ (beggars/buggers), with his Davy whom Falstaff called ‘your serving-man’ (serving-man, lover) and ‘your husband’. […] ‘Husband’ means manager, sexual partner; ‘use’ is sexual intercourse (OED; P); ‘serving means coitally (OED; P); a serving-man is a lover; and good is a descriptive for fornicators.

• “serving man”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022: “archaic / A male servant or attendant.”.
• “serving man” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024: “a male servant, or attendant; a manservant.”.