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footman

noun

Etymology

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.

  1. inherited from *fōtman✻
  2. inherited from fotman

Definitions

  1. A soldier who marches and fights on foot

    A soldier who marches and fights on foot; a foot soldier.

  2. A man in waiting

    A man in waiting; a male servant whose duties are to attend the door, the carriage, the table, etc.

    • 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.

  3. A servant who runs in front of his master's carriage.

    • When he travelled by coach the vehicle was accompanied by his liveried footmen running alongside to ensure its smooth passage (footmen would not be indoor servants until a century later).
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. A metallic stand with four feet, for keeping anything warm before a fire.

    2. A moth of the family Arctiidae (or subfamily Arctiinae)

      A moth of the family Arctiidae (or subfamily Arctiinae); -- so called from its livery-like colors.

    3. A bar that connects the treadle of a spinning wheel to the wheel.

    4. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

footmanhood, footmanly, footmanry, footmanship, speckled footman, underfootman

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for footman. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA