babysittern.
/ˈbeɪbɪˌsɪtə/, U.S. /ˈbeɪbiˌsɪdər/ A person engaged to look after a child or children while the parents or guardians are out. Cf. sitter n.1 2b(d).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > care, protection, or charge > [noun] > one who looks after > child-minder or baby-sitter
minder1692
baby-minder1856
babysitter1937
childminder1941
sitter1943
sitter-in1946
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > care, protection, or charge > [noun] > care for or looking after > care of child or children > looking after child in parents' absence
babysitter1937
1937 C. R. Walker Amer. City 230 There are two high-school girls in the neighborhood who hire out for twenty-five cents an evening as ‘baby sitters’ when the family wants to go to the movies.
1951 Times 18 Dec. 5/4 Everybody knows what a baby-sitter is supposed to do (though, curiously enough, hardly anybody except the baby ever sees her do it).
1975 Victoria (Brit. Columbia) Times 12 May 16 It seems that over in Rome an enterprising countess has started a baby-sitting agency with a difference—the baby-sitters are grannies.
2005 N. Hornby Long Way Down 143 We didn't mind spending bits of the money on babysitters.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1937