Footman

A footman is a male household servant who serves at meals. Once a commonly employed servant in great houses, footmen are much rarer today, as few households can afford large retinues of servants and retainers.

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The name derives from the attendants who ran beside or behind the carriages of aristocrats, many of whom were chosen for their physical attributes.

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The first footman is the highest ranking and serves as deputy butler; he acts as butler in the butler's absence.

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In a larger household, the footmen may be assigned specific duties, such as the silver specialist, but usually the footmen perform a range of duties which include serving meals, opening and closing doors, carrying heavy items, or moving furniture for the housemaids to clean behind. The footmen may also double as valets, especially for visiting guests.

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Male: Male is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces sperm. The "sperm" is defined as the smaller, ordinarily motile gamete in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the larger gamete, the ovum, is produced by the female. A male individual cannot reproduce sexually without acc...

Household: The household is the basic unit of analysis in many microeconomic and government models. As the name suggests, the term refers to all individuals who live in the same house....

Servant: Servant has a number of meanings:...