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handmaiden

noun

Etymology

From Middle English hande mayden, handmaiden, hand mayden, hand-mayden, handmayden, hondemaiden, hond maydyn, hoondmaydyn. By surface analysis, hand + maiden. Sense 2 is an allusion to Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), in which "handmaids" are women who serve the male commanders in a patriarchal dystopia.

  1. inherited from hande mayden

Definitions

  1. Alternative form of handmaid.

  2. A cisgender woman who supports transgender rights.

    • Solidarity with trans people but not women[,] I note[,] Angela. Especially the boring ones who fought for rights that you now enjoy. Enjoy being a handmaiden.
    • I have been called a handmaiden, a “pick me” girl, and been accused of vying for male attention.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for handmaiden. 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