Menial

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: me=ni=al

CIDE DICTIONARY

Menial, a. [OE. meneal, fr. meine, maine, household, OF. maisniée, maisnie, LL. mansionaticum. See Mansion, and cf. Meine, n., Meiny.].

•  Belonging to a retinue or train of servants; performing servile office; serving.  [1913 Webster]

  "Two menial dogs before their master pressed."  [1913 Webster]
•  Pertaining to servants, esp. domestic servants; servile; low; mean; as, menial tasks.  Swift.  [1913 Webster]

Menial, n. 

•  A domestic servant or retainer, esp. one of humble rank; one employed in low or servile offices.  [1913 Webster]
•  A person of a servile character or disposition.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Menial, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 (esp. of unskilled domestic work) degrading, servile.
2 usu. derog. (of a servant) domestic.
--n.
1 a menial servant.
2 a servile person.

Derivative

menially adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF meinee household

THESAURUS

Menial

attendant, attending, base, blue-collar worker, bootlicker, breadwinner, brown-nosing, casual, casual laborer, common laborer, cringing, day laborer, degrading, demeaning, domestic, domestic servant, drudge, employee, factory worker, fag, fawning, flattering, flunky, free lance, free-lancer, full-time worker, gofer, hand, help, helping, humble, ignoble, industrial worker, jobber, jobholder, laborer, laboring man, lackey, leech, lickspittle, low, lowly, mean, migrant, minion, ministering, moiler, navvy, obeisant, obsequious, office temporary, parasite, proletarian, roustabout, routine, salaried worker, scullion, self-employed person, serf, servant, servile, serving, servitor, servitorial, slave, slavey, slavish, stiff, submissive, subservient, sycophant, sycophantic, temporary, toady, toadying, toiler, turnspit, underling, unskilled, wage earner, wage slave, wageworker, waiting, worker, workgirl, workhand, working girl, workingman, workingwoman, workman, yes-man

ROGET THESAURUS

Menial

Servant

N servant, subject, liegeman, servant, retainer, follower, henchman, servitor, domestic, menial, help, lady help, employe, attache, official, retinue, suite, cortege, staff, court, attendant, squire, usher, page, donzel, footboy, train bearer, cup bearer, waiter, lapster, butler, livery servant, lackey, footman, flunky, flunkey, valet, valet de chambre, equerry, groom, jockey, hostler, ostler, tiger, orderly, messenger, cad, gillie, herdsman, swineherd, barkeeper, bartender, bell boy, boots, boy, counterjumper, khansamah, khansaman, khitmutgar, yardman, bailiff, castellan, seneschal, chamberlain, major-domo, groom of the chambers, secretary, under secretary, assistant secretary, clerk, subsidiary, agent, subaltern, underling, understrapper, man, maid, maidservant, handmaid, confidente, lady's maid, abigail, soubrette, amah, biddy, nurse, bonne, ayah, nursemaid, nursery maid, house maid, parlor maid, waiting maid, chamber maid, kitchen maid, scullery maid, femme de chambre, femme fille, camarista, chef de cuisine, cordon bleu, cook, scullion, Cinderella, potwalloper, maid of all work, servant of all work, laundress, bedmaker, journeyman, charwoman, bearer, chokra, gyp (Cambridge), hamal, scout (Oxford), serf, vassal, slave, negro, helot, bondsman, bondswoman, bondslave, ame damnee, odalisque, ryot, adscriptus gleboe, villian, villein, beadsman, bedesman, sizar, pensioner, pensionary, client, dependant, dependent, hanger on, satellite, parasite, led captain, protege, ward, hireling, mercenary, puppet, tool, creature, badge of slavery, bonds, in the train of, in one's pay, in one's employ, at one's call, in bonds.

Commonalty

N commonality, commonalty, democracy, obscurity, low condition, low life, low society, low company, bourgeoisie, mass of the people, mass of society, Brown Jones and Robinson, lower classes, humbler classes, humbler orders, vulgar herd, common herd, rank and file, hoc genus omne, the many, the general, the crowd, the people, the populace, the multitude, the million, the masses, the mobility, the peasantry, king Mob, proletariat, fruges consumere nati, demos, hoi polloi, great unwashed, man in the street, mob, rabble, rabble rout, chaff, rout, horde, canaille, scum of the people, residuum of the people, dregs of the people, dregs of society, swinish multitude, foex populi, trash, profanum vulgus, ignobile vulgus, vermin, riffraff, ragtag and bobtail, small fry, commoner, one of the people, democrat, plebeian, republican, proletary, proletaire, roturier, Mr, Snooks, bourgeois, epicier, Philistine, cockney, grisette, demimonde, peasant, countryman, boor, carle, churl, villain, villein, terrae filius, son of the land, serf, kern, tyke, tike, chuff, ryot, fellah, longshoreman, swain, clown, hind, clod, clodhopper, hobnail, yokel, bog-trotter, bumpkin, plowman, plowboy, rustic, hayseed, lunkhead, chaw-bacon, tiller of the soil, hewers of wood and drawers of water, groundling, gaffer, loon, put, cub, Tony Lumpkin, looby, rube, lout, underling, gamin, rough, pot- wallopper, slubberdegullion, vulgar fellow, low fellow, cad, curmudgeon, upstart, parvenu, skipjack, nobody, nobody one knows, hesterni quirites, pessoribus orti, bourgeois gentilhomme, novus homo, snob, gent, mushroom, no one knows who, adventurer, man of straw, beggar, gaberlunzie, muckworm, mudlark, sans culotte, raff, tatterdemalion, caitiff, ragamuffin, Pariah, outcast of society, tramp, vagabond, bezonian, panhandler, sundowner, chiffonnier, Cinderella, cinderwench, scrub, jade, gossoon, Goth, Vandal, Hottentot, Zulu, savage, barbarian, Yahoo, unlicked cub, rough diamond, barbarousness, barbarism, boeotia, ignoble, common, mean, low, base, vile, sorry, scrubby, beggarly, below par, no great shakes, homely, homespun, vulgar, low-minded, snobbish, plebeian, proletarian, of low parentage, of low origin, of low extraction, of mean parentage, of mean origin, of mean extraction, lowborn, baseborn, earthborn, mushroom, dunghill, risen from the ranks, unknown to fame, obscure, untitled, rustic, uncivilized, loutish, boorish, clownish, churlish, brutish, raffish, rude, unlicked, barbarous, barbarian, barbaric, barbaresque, cockney, born within sound of Bow bells, underling, menial, subaltern, below the salt, dummodo sit dives barbarus ipse placet.