What is butler?

Butler

A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its appearance. A butler is usually male, and in charge of male servants, while a housekeeper is usually a woman, and in charge of female servants. Traditionally, male servants (such as footmen) were rarer and therefore better paid and of higher status than female servants. The butler, as the senior male servant, has the highest servant status.

Read more about Butler.

Famous quotes containing the word butler:

    How but in custom and in ceremony
    Are innocence and beauty born?
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    What climbs the stair?
    Nothing that common women ponder on
    If you are worth my hope! Neither Content
    Nor satisfied Conscience, but that great family
    Some ancient famous authors misrepresent,
    The Proud Furies each with her torch on high.
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    I dreamed that one had died in a strange place
    Near no accustomed hand;
    And they had nailed the boards above her face....
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)