Mistress vs Maid - What's the difference?

In archaic terms the difference between mistress and maid

is that mistress is used as the title of a married woman before her name. Now used only in the abbreviated form Mrs while maid is a virgin of either gender.

As nouns the difference between mistress and maid

is that mistress is a woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership while maid is a girl or an unmarried young woman; maiden.

mistress

English

Noun

(es)

A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership.

* , chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress , and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook.}}

A female teacher.

A female partner in an extramarital relationship, generally including sexual relations.

A dominatrix.

* 2006 , Amelia May Kingston, The Triumph of Hope (page 376)

As part of BDSM play they can enhance the domineering tread of a mistress or hobble the steps of a slave.

A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.

* Addison

A letter desires all young wives to make themselves mistresses of Wingate's Arithmetic.

A woman regarded with love and devotion; a sweetheart.

(Clarendon)

(Scotland) A married woman; a wife.

* Sir (Walter Scott)

Several of the neighbouring mistresses had assembled to witness the event of this memorable evening.

(obsolete) The jack in the game of bowls.

(Beaumont and Fletcher)

female companion to a master

Usage notes

In the sexual sense, mistress is narrowly taken to mean a woman involved in a committed'' extramarital relationship (an affair), often supported financially (a kept woman). It is broadly taken to mean a woman involved in an extramarital relationship regardless of the level of commitment, but requires more than a single act of adultery. Tiger Woods Does Not Have 11 “Mistresses”: His many paramours aren’t committed enough to merit that term. by Jesse Sheidlower, '', Dec. 10, 2009.

Synonyms

* (woman with control, authority or ownership''): boss (''applicable to either sex''), head (''applicable to either sex''), leader (''applicable to either sex ) * (female teacher ): schoolmarm * (woman who displaces a wife in the affections of a man''): bit on the side (''applicable to either sex ), fancy woman, , goomah * See also

Antonyms

Male equivalents: * (woman with control, authority or ownership ): master * (female teacher ): master * (female partner in an extramarital affair ): cicisbeo, fancy man * (dominatrix ): master

Derived terms

* headmistress * mistresshood * mistresslike * mistressship * mistressy * wardrobe mistress

References

maid

English

Noun

(en noun)

(dated, or, poetic) A girl or an unmarried young woman; maiden.

Note - maid is often used in the common or species names of flowering plants.

A female servant or cleaner (short for maidservant).

* , title=The Mirror and the Lamp

, chapter=2 citation , passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid , […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}

(archaic) A virgin of either gender.

* 1380+ , (Geoffrey Chaucer), (The Canterbury Tales)

Crist was a mayde and shapen as a man.

* 1601 , (William Shakespeare), (Twelfth Night)

You are betrothed both to a maid and man.

Synonyms

* (young female person) damsel, maiden * (female servant) handmaiden, lady-in-waiting, maidservant * (female cleaner) chambermaid (in a hotel), charlady (in a house), charwoman (in a house)

Anagrams

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