A servant is a person who is hired to provide regular household or other duties, and receives compensation.
While often used synonymously with the more modern and politically correct term "domestic worker", there are nuances of meaning:
- Servant was the term used exclusively through the mid-20th Century.
- Servant includes workers both inside the home (e.g. a maid) and outside (e.g. a stablehand).
- Domestic worker includes industrial employees, such as those who work for hotels or cruise lines.
- Servants are distinguishable from serfs or slaves in that they are compensated, that is, they must receive payment (and, following labour reforms in the 20th Century) benefits) for their work. They are also free to leave their employment at any time, although social conditions have made that next to impossible in various eras.
- Indentured servants are those who are bound to their employers for a specific length of time.
- For the history of domestic service, see domestic service.
- For the hierarchy of servants in a household, see great house.
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