Advertisement
scullion (n.)
"low-ranking domestic servant who performs menial kitchen tasks," late 15c., perhaps, with substitution of suffix, from Anglo-French sculier, a variant of Old French escuelier, from escouve "broom, twig," from Latin scopa (plural scopæ) "broom," related to scapus "shaft, stem" (see scape (n.2)). Or an alteration of Old French souillon "scullion" (but this is not attested before 16c.), by influence of scullery.