Meanings
plural manservants · plural menservants · alternative man servant · alternative man-servant
- A male servant.
I asked my manservant to attend to the washing and cleaning.
3 more examples
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.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 5:13–14, column 2"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."
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLCBut 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.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLCSynonyms: servingman
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA male servant.
Origin
- Middle Englishman servant
- Englishmanservant
From Middle English man servant, man servaunt; equivalent to man + servant.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Basque otsein
- otseinmale servant
Bulgarian слуга
- слуга (sluga)male servant
Finnish miespalvelija
- miespalvelijamale servant
French serviteur
- serviteurmale servant
German Diener
- Dienermale servant
Hungarian szolga, inas
- szolgamale servant
- inasmale servant
Icelandic heimilisþjónn, þjónn
- heimilisþjónnmale servant
- þjónnmale servant
- einkaþjónnmale servant
Latin anculus
- anculusmale servant
Polish służący, sługa
- służącymale servant
- sługamale servant
Portuguese servidor
- servidormale servant
Russian слуга́
- слуга́ (slugá)male servant
Spanish servidor
- servidormale servant
Turkish uşak
- uşakmale servant
Cite this entry
manservant. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/manservant
“manservant.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/manservant. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “manservant,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/manservant.
Source: manservant on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.