abigail

See also: Abigail and Abigaíl

English edit

From the name Abigail, as given to a waiting-maid in Beaumont and Fletcher's play The Scornful Lady.

abigail (plural abigails)

(obsolete) A lady's maid. [mid 17th–19th c.]^[1]
- 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, page 415:
  It was therefore concluded that the Abigails should, by turns, relieve each other on one of his lordship’s horses, which was presently equipped with a side-saddle for that purpose.
- 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre:
  In the servants’ hall two coachmen and three gentlemen’s gentlemen stood or sat round the fire; the abigails, I suppose, were upstairs with their mistresses; the new servants, that had been hired from Millcote, were bustling about everywhere.

lady's waiting-maid

^ Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abigail”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 4.

“abigail”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
“abigail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors (1889–1890) “abigail”, in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant […], volumes I (A–K), Edinburgh: […] The Ballantyne Press, →OCLC, pages 4–5.
John S[tephen] Farmer, compiler (1890) “abigail”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume I, [London: […] Thomas Poulter and Sons] […], →OCLC, pages 5–6.