woman servant

English

Noun

woman servant (plural woman servants or women servants)

1. Alternative form of womanservant
   • 1794, Charlotte Smith, chapter IV, in The Banished Man. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, (successors to Mr. [Thomas] Cadell) […], →OCLC, pages 91–92:

     […] they learned that all the domeſtics had appeared; and the women ſervants, began to be very eloquent in praiſe of D’Alonville, to whom they declared the preſervation of the family had been entirely owing; […]

   • 1916, H. G. Wells, Mr. Britling Sees It Through‎^[1], Book I, Chapter 1, § 9:

     But two cheerful women servants appeared from what was presumably the kitchen direction, wheeling a curious wicker erection, which his small guide informed him was called Aunt Clatter—manifestly deservedly—and which bore on its shelves the substance of the meal.

   • 2002, Marilyn French, “Industrialization”, in From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women, volumes 3 (Infernos and Paradises, the Triumph of Capitalism in the 19th Century), The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, published 2008, →ISBN, page 68:

     It was no longer acceptable for employers to beat servants, but some pushed woman servants around or boxed their ears or scolded them humiliatingly, calling them “silly girl,” “lazybones,” or “blockhead.”