abigail

Pronunciation pronunciation key
abigayl

Definition 
A lady's maid; female domestic servant. The reference is to Abigail, the wife of Nabal according to 1 Samuel 25. When Nabal, the wealthy owner of goats and sheep in Carmel, refuses to provide food for David's followers, Abigail apologizes for her husband's ungenerosity and offers sustenance to David, thus forestalling an attack upon their own people. Abigail calls herself "thine handmaid" no less than six times in the space of 17 verses and, after Nabal dies 10 days later, becomes David's wife. Sir Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher subsequently gave the name to a lady's maid in their play The Scornful Lady (1610) and thus popularized it as an informal name for any woman engaged in such a post. Its identification with such subservient roles was further cemented by the notoriety of Abigail Hill Masham, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne of Great Britain who used her influence over the monarch to advance her own interests. Her grandmother served as an abigail in one of the great Scottish castles.