{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}} {{Use British English|date=April 2025}} {{Short description|Male domestic worker or personal assistant}} {{for|the novel by Ferdinand Oyono|Houseboy (novel)}} {{Refimprove|date=April 2015}} {{Infobox occupation | name= Houseboy | image= P00197-431 (cropped).jpg | caption= Houseboy with child in New Guinea, c. 1930s | official_names= <!------------Details-------------------> | type=Domestic labour | activity_sector=Housework | competencies= | formation= | employment_field= | related_occupation = Maid | average_salary= }} '''Houseboy''' is a term which refers to a typically male domestic worker or personal assistant who performs cleaning and other forms of personal chores. The term has a record of being used in the British Empire, military slang.
==United Kingdom== Historically, houseboy was a term used in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for a male domestic servant. He was usually, but not always, a native person who worked for a British family living in the non-British regions of the empire. A female housecleaner was termed a housegirl. Both sexes often wore uniform, due to their status as domestic servants.
== Military slang == Houseboy was also used as an American slang term originating in the Second World War for a young teenager who helped American soldiers perform basic responsibilities like cleaning, laundry, ironing, shoe-shining, running errands, etc. The British English term for this occupation was 'Batman'.
==See also== * Housekeeper * Fagging * :wikt:Garçon, the French word for "boy", also used as an occupational title * House officer, previously "houseman", various grades of doctor in British hospitals * House slave, as opposed to field slaves, during the period of slavery in the United States
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Wiktionary}}
Category:Domestic work Category:Gay culture