charwoman
/tʃˈɑɹwʊmən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.67 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A woman employed to do housework, traditionally coming and going on a daily basis and paid weekly wages.
British usage
Example Sentences
- "The cloth was laid by an occasional charwoman, who officiated in the capacity of Mr. Bob Sawyer’s housekeeper; […]"
- "Through a partly-opened door the noise of a scrubbing-brush led up to the charwoman, Maryann Money, a person who for a face had a circular disc, furrowed less by age than by long gazes of perplexity at distant objects."
- "This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything."
- "But there was nobody at Kig and Kadgit's except the charwoman wiping over the “lino” in the passage."
- "[H]e described the speech of the charwoman washing the hotel stairs and gave lists of words collected from the bathmen."
Etymology
Etymology tree English char Proto-Germanic *wībą Proto-West Germanic *wīb Old English wīf Proto-Indo-European *mon- Proto-Germanic *mann- Proto-West Germanic *mann Old English mann Old English wīfmann Middle English woman Middle English -woman English -woman English charwoman From char + -woman.
Usage
- British usage