A person whose job is to help customers or passengers, like a flight attendant or parking attendant.
From French 'attendant,' derived from Latin 'attendere,' combining 'ad-' (to) and 'tendere' (to stretch), originally meaning 'to pay attention' or 'wait upon.'
The root 'tend' appears in 'attend,' 'attend,' 'tenant,' 'tender,' and 'tendon'—all coming from the idea of 'stretching toward,' showing how one Latin root branched into dozens of English words.
Attendant roles (flight, parking, etc.) became stereotypically feminized in 20th-century service industries, with expectation of subservience and emotional labor.
Use neutrally; avoid gendered assumptions about appearance, demeanor, or personal availability in attendant roles.
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