Tweeny

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A junior servant in a large household who assisted both the cook and the housemaid with lighter tasks
2. Historically, a young maid employed in a wealthy British house to fetch, carry and help the kitchen and upstairs staff
3. A household helper of the past who worked between the kitchen and the upper rooms, doing odd jobs for several servants

Etymology: "Tweeny" is a noun built from "tween", a shortening of "between", plus the suffix "-y". In this case the suffix does a familiar job: it turns a word into a diminutive or pet-form, as in "doggy" or "birdie". So a tweeny is someone in the in-between stage of life, neither a child nor a teenager, usually around eleven to thirteen. The clipping "tween" shows how English often shortens a common word and keeps the shortened form as its own word. Starting from "between", the first syllable dropped off, leaving "tween" to mean "between" in informal use, especially in phrases like "tween years". Adding "-y" to that clipping produced the noun for the people in that age group.

Synonyms: maidservant, skivvy