bower-womann.
archaic.
A chamber-woman, a waiting-woman.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > service > servant > personal or domestic servant > attendant or personal servant > [noun] > servant of bedchamber > woman
bower-maidc1308
bower-womanc1380
chamberlaina1400
bower-may1870
c1380 J. Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 9 Þis gospel telliþ not how Marie tok a bourwoman, but went mekeli in hast to salute her cosyn.
c1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 1711 A lady, twa bourwemen alswa.
c1450 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 691 Hec abra, ancilla, burwoman.
1820 W. Scott Monastery I. iii. 115 The shepherd's wife..who in better days had been her own bower-woman.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1887; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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n.c1380