maid service

[tulipflower]

Is 'maid service' used only for female servants?

 

[Tdol]

Places that use the term probably employ women in these jobs, but I don't see that it has to be exclusive.

 

[emsr2d2]

I assumed it could be used to refer to either sex (if they're doing the tasks normally associated with that job title) but I discovered that almost every dictionary still says "female domestic servant".

I noted that one says "maid" is a shortened version of "maidservant" and the male version is "manservant". The latter would sound very old-fashioned if used these days.

 

[PeterCW]

Well, 'maid' originally meant 'unmarried (young) woman'.

Even i am not old enough to remember that usage, but I am old enough to remember it used for a female servant. I have never come across it used of males, even of those doing the domestic work associated with the word.

In that sense it is short for "maiden" meaning virgin rather than simply unmarried. If you had that definition from a dictionary then I am afraid that the editors are being rather coy.

Traditionally maidservants would have been unmarried and so, supposedly, maids in both senses of the word.

 

[probus]

Places that use the term probably employ women in these jobs, but I don't see that it has to be exclusive.

Yes. Some five-star hotels in India employ only males to make beds and clean guest rooms. I imagine it's so also in the Arab world.

 

[GoesStation]

I am old enough to remember it used for a female servant.

It's still used that way in California. It was shocking to me when my family moved there from the Midwest United States and I heard that usage.

 

[GoesStation]

Yes. Some five-star hotels in India employ only males to make beds and clean guest rooms. I imagine it's so also in the Arab world.

The room cleaners in at least one Arab-owned hotel I stayed in in Israel were all men.

 

[emsr2d2]

Yes. Some five-star hotels in India employ only males to make beds and clean guest rooms. I imagine it's so also in the Arab world.

I wonder what their job title is (in Indian English, of course!)

 

[GoesStation]

Ah, but were they referred to as maids?

I rather doubt it.

 

[probus]

I wonder what their job title is (in Indian English, of course!)

I'm not really sure. When need be we used to refer to them as housekeeping staff. Perhaps one of our subcontinental members can advise us.

 

[SoothingDave]

Hotels in the US just refer to "housekeeping." Avoids the issue.

 

[Tdol]

But you do have to know there's an issue to avoid it. In some parts of the world, the issue is still less clear.