footman - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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From Middle English fotman, footman, foteman (“foot soldier, running footman”), from Old English *fōtman, *fōtmann (attested only as Old English fēþman, fēþemann (“footman”), equivalent to foot + man.
footman (plural footmen)
- (archaic) A soldier who marches and fights on foot; a foot soldier.
- A man in waiting; a male servant whose duties are to attend the door, the carriage, the table, etc.
- Coordinate term: footwoman
1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, pages 251–252:
[…] on October 29, 1888, the Russian imperial train was derailed at Borki by defective track, and twenty-one persons were killed. Although these did not include the Emperor Alexander III, who escaped with a bruising, a footman serving coffee to him at the critical moment, and his dog, which was lying on the floor beside him, were both killed on the spot.
1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […] : Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.
2023 September 23, Tim Hayward, “Not so easy does it”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 19:
Reading their accounts, you can't help feeling they got a more thrilling frisson from sharing a pot of home-made stew without a footman than they took in any of their convoluted couplings.
- (historical) A servant who runs in front of his master's carriage.
- A metallic stand with four feet, for keeping anything warm before a fire.
- A moth of the family Arctiidae (or subfamily Arctiinae); -- so called from its livery-like colors.
- especially, a common footman (Manulea lurideola)
- A bar that connects the treadle of a spinning wheel to the wheel.
- (historical): runner, running footman
- (moth): footman moth
male servant
moth of the subfamily Arctiinae
- “footman”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “footman”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “footman”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “footman”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
footman
- Alternative form of fotman