Generic Use
Abigail's self-styling as a handmaid led to Abigail being the traditional term for a waiting-woman, for example as the waiting gentlewoman in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady, published in 1616. Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding use Abigail in this generic sense, as does Charlotte Brontë. Anthony Trollope makes two references to the abigail (all lower case) in The Eustace Diamonds, at the beginning of Chapter 42. William Rose Benet notes the notoriety of Abigail Hill, better known as "Mrs Masham", a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne.
Read more about this topic: Abigail
Famous quotes containing the word generic:
““Mother” has always been a generic term synonymous with love, devotion, and sacrifice. There’s always been something mystical and reverent about them. They’re the Walter Cronkites of the human race . . . infallible, virtuous, without flaws and conceived without original sin, with no room for ambivalence.”
—Erma Bombeck (20th century)