chamberer

plural chamberers

1. obsoleteA high-ranking female servant who attends in a royal's or noble's chamber.

   And then she said to her chamberer: It behoveth us no longer to abide here; and she said: Lady, whither will ye go?

   2020, Jacobus De Voragine, Wyatt North, The Golden Legend

   2 more examples

   Mary Shelton, who entered as a chamberer in 1567 when she was about 17 years old, was the queen's second cousin on the Boleyn side.

   2015, Susan Doran, Elizabeth I and Her Circle, page 200

   Servants sped up and down stairs to this gallery, bringing up plates of food from the Queen's privy kitchen, which then had to be handed over to the maids of honor, pages, or chamberers, […]

   2017, Gareth Russell, Young and Damned and Fair, page 79

   Synonyms: chambermaid

2. obsoleteA gallant; a libertine.

   I[…]haue not those soft parts of Conuersation That Chamberers haue

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]

   1 more example

   […] as a soldier, as a legislator, she adores him most; not as a chamberer, and a carpet-knight.

   1840, George Darley, “Introduction”, in The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher

   Synonyms: adulterer, bed-hopper, carpetmonger, debauchee, debaucher, fornicator, gallant, lecher