chambermaid

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a woman employed to clean and care for bedrooms, now chiefly in a hotel and historically in a private household

   The chambermaid replaced the towels and prepared the room for the next guest.

A late sixteenth-century compound of chamber + maid. Chamber came through Old French chambre from Latin camera, 'vaulted room,' while maid is inherited from Old English maegden. The occupation shifted from tending bedrooms in wealthy households to cleaning guest rooms in hotels.

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