# Houseboy

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> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Houseboy.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseboy
> Source revision: 1327557438
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{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](/source/New_Guinea), c. 1930s
| official_names=
<!------------Details------------------->
| type=Domestic labour
| activity_sector=[Housework](/source/Domestic_worker)
| competencies=
| formation=
| employment_field=
| related_occupation = [Maid](/source/Maid)
| average_salary=
}}
'''Houseboy''' is a term which refers to a typically [male](/source/male) [domestic worker](/source/domestic_worker) or [personal assistant](/source/personal_assistant) who performs [cleaning](/source/cleaning) and other forms of personal chores. The term has a record of being used in the [British Empire](/source/British_Empire), military slang.

==United Kingdom==
Historically, houseboy was a term used in the [United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland](/source/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](/source/Regional_vocabularies_of_American_English) originating in the [Second World War](/source/World_War_II) for a young teenager who helped American soldiers perform basic responsibilities like cleaning, laundry, ironing, shoe-shining, running errands, etc. The [British English](/source/British_English) term for this occupation was '[Batman](/source/Batman_(military))'.

==See also==
* [Housekeeper](/source/Housekeeper_(domestic_worker))
* [Fagging](/source/Fagging) 
* [:wikt:Garçon](/source/%3Awikt%3AGar%C3%A7on), the French word for "boy", also used as an occupational title
* [House officer](/source/House_officer_(disambiguation)), previously "houseman", various grades of doctor in British [hospital](/source/hospital)s
* [House slave](/source/House_negro), as opposed to [field slaves](/source/Field_slaves_in_the_United_States), during the period of [slavery in the United States](/source/slavery_in_the_United_States)

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Wiktionary}}

Category:Domestic work
Category:Gay culture

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Houseboy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseboy) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseboy?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.