Butler vs. Seneschal

Butlernoun

A manservant having charge of wines and liquors.

Seneschalnoun

A steward, particularly (historical) one in charge of a medieval nobleman's estate.

Butlernoun

The chief male servant of a household who has charge of other employees, receives guests, directs the serving of meals, and performs various personal services.

Seneschalnoun

(historical) An officer of the crown in late medieval and early modern France who served as a kind of governor and chief justice of the royal court in Normandy and Languedoc.

Butlernoun

A valet, a male personal attendant.

Seneschalnoun

An officer in the houses of princes and dignitaries, in the Middle Ages, who had the superintendence of feasts and domestic ceremonies; a steward. Sometimes the seneschal had the dispensing of justice, and was given high military commands.

‘Then marshaled feastServed up in hall with sewers and seneschale.’; ‘Philip Augustus, by a famous ordinance in 1190, first established royal courts of justice, held by the officers called baitiffs, or seneschals, who acted as the king's lieutenants in his demains.’;

Butlerverb

To buttle, to dispense wines or liquors; to take the place of a butler.

Seneschalnoun

the chief steward or butler of a great household

Butlernoun

An officer in a king's or a nobleman's household, whose principal business it is to take charge of the liquors, plate, etc.; the head servant in a large house.

‘The butler and the baker of the king of Egypt.’; ‘Your wine locked up, your butler strolled abroad.’;

Seneschal

The word seneschal () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ducal, or noble household during the Middle Ages and early Modern period – historically a steward or majordomo of a medieval great house.

Butlernoun

a manservant (usually the head servant of a household) who has charge of wines and the table

Butlernoun

the chief manservant of a house.

Butler

A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry.