Busboys

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A worker in a restaurant or dining establishment responsible for clearing tables and resetting them for new customers
2. An individual who assists waitstaff by removing dirty dishes and cleaning surfaces in the dining area
3. A person whose duties include facilitating the dining experience by ensuring tables are clean and ready for guests

Etymology: The plural "busboys" is simply the regular plural of "busboy," a compound that came into use in American English for the waiter's helper who clears and resets tables. The first half is a clipping of "omnibus," which in the sense "assistant waiter" was a kind of shortened, jokingly grand term. The omnibus was a horse-drawn vehicle carrying many passengers at once, and by extension the word came to mean something that serves many, here the many diners a single waiter could not reach alone. The second half, "boy," was once a common label for a young male servant of any age, a usage that carried a sense of the servant's subordinate status. That is why the compound still reads as a job title for a young worker rather than as a neutral description.