sculleryman

English

Etymology

From scullery +‎ -man.

Noun

sculleryman (plural scullerymen)

1. (historical, in large houses) A male domestic servant, of lowest status, whose job is to wash dishes and do other menial chores.
   • 1882, Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of the Cape of Good Hope During the Years 1880-2, volume I, page 178:

     Where a cook gave a sculleryman employed in the same house some scraps of meat and dripping and some plates in which to carry the scraps, and the sculleryman was arrested at the instigation of the butler on leaving the house on suspicion of having stolen the things, and he explained that he had received them from the cook, who being thereupon questioned confirmed this story, yet notwithstanding, the sculleryman was charged before the Magistrate with theft, but the case was dismissed, apparently for want of a prosecutor, and he then brought an action of malicious prosecution against the butler, and absolution from the instance was granted, the Court disallowed the appeal.

   • 1912, Awards, Recommendations, Agreements, Orders, Etc., New Zealand. Department of Labour, page 362:

     A sculleryman may be employed at not less than £1; a scullerymaid may be employed at not less than 17s. 6d.

   • 1914, Reports of Proceedings Before the Boards of Conciliation and the Court of Arbitration, Western Australia. Court of Arbitration, page 148:

     Persons employed in the capacities of kitchenmen, pantrymen, scullerymen, waiters, porters (day and night), yardmen, handymen, oyster openers, waitresses, kitchenmaids, scullerymaids, and pantrymaids, are all provided for in a scale, the minimum of which is £1 and the maximum £1 12s. 6d., which is the wage for the waiter.

   • 1939, Dennis Wheatley, Sixty Days to Live:

     Hemmingway can lay the table and do mess-waiter and, as Sam loves pottering about in kitchens, he’d better be scullery-man and help Margery with the washing-up.

   • 1950, C[harles] G[raham] T[roughton] Dean, The Royal Hospital Chelsea, Hutchinson & Co., page 82:

     […] Master Cook, Sculleryman and their assistants. Each Under-Officer had two rooms, and most of the servants, one; but the remainder shared a room, and the two Under Scullerymen, who ranked lowest among the servants, had even to share a bed.

   • 1968 July 10, The Western Australian Industrial Gazette, page 291:

     Kitchenman, pantryman, sculleryman, yardman, handyman, general hand, and unspecified workers [“Male $”:] 4.90 [“Female $”:] —

Coordinate terms

• scullery maid