handmaid

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   dated or historical: a female personal servant or attendant

   The queen entered the chamber with a handmaid carrying her cloak.

2. 2
   noun

   figurative: something that serves or supports a more important purpose, activity, or field

   In his argument, mathematics becomes the handmaid of philosophy.

Inherited from Middle English handemayde, a compound of hand + maid; hand carried the sense "ready or close at hand." The figurative sense developed from the servant role: a discipline or thing subordinate to and assisting another.

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