maid

From Middle English mayde, maide, abbreviation of Middle English maiden from Old English mæġden (Old English mǣden). Ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *magaþ, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs (“girl, virgin”).

• IPA^(key): /meɪd/
• Rhymes: -eɪd
• Homophone: made

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maid (plural maids)

1. (dated or poetic) A girl or an unmarried young woman; maiden.
2. A female servant or cleaner (short for maidservant).
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […] ; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

3. (archaic) A virgin, now female but originally one of either gender.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     You are betrothed both to a maid and man.

Maid, in the sense of a girl or unmarried woman, is often used in the common (species) names of flowering plants.

• (young female person): damsel, maiden
• (female servant): ancilla, handmaiden, lady-in-waiting, maiden, maidservant, servingmaid, servingwoman, womanservant
• (female cleaner): chambermaid (in a hotel), charlady (in a house), charwoman (in a house), cleaning lady (in a house), cleaneress (rare term)

• Dima, Madi, aim'd, amid, diam, diam.

From English maid, Middle English mayde, maide, abbreviation of maiden. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *magaþs (“maid, virgin”).

maid

1. a female servant or cleaner; a maidservant, a housemaid

• (maid): katabang, muchacha, mutsatsa

maid

1. partitive plural of maa

maid

1. partitive singular of mai
2. nominative plural of mai

From Proto-Finnic *maito, possibly from Proto-Finno-Permic *majδ̕ɜ. Cognates include Finnish maito.

maid

1. milk

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈmajt/

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

maid

1. also, too

• Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008), Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎, Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

maid

1. accusative/genitive plural of mii

• IPA^(key): [maðʲ]

·maid

1. third-person singular present indicative conjunct of maidid

maid

1. Alternative form of maith (“good”)

From Proto-Finnic *maito, possibly from Proto-Finno-Permic *majδ̕ɜ. Cognates include Finnish maito.

maid

1. milk

• hapanmaid
• pihtimaid
• rahtmaid
• maidnedal'

• Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “молоко”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎, Petrozavodsk: Periodika