waiter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person, especially a man, whose job is to serve food and drink to customers at their tables in a restaurant.

   The waiter brought us the menu.

2. 2
   verb

   To work as a waiter, serving food in a restaurant.

   He waitered in a hotel during the summer.

From late 14th century Middle English waiter, wayter (“attendant, watchman”). By surface analysis, wait + -er. Sense of "servant who waits at tables" is from late 15th century, originally in reference to household servants; in reference to inns, eating houses, etc., it is attested from 1660s. Feminine form waitress first recorded 1834. The London Stock Exchange sense harks back to the early days of trading in coffee-shops.

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