English

Noun

houseboi ‎(plural housebois)

1. domestic manservant, particularly colonial
   • 1922, Stephen Piero Sergius Rudinger de Rodyenko, Small Me: A Story of Shanghai Life, The James A. McCann Company, page 36:

     “‘Dear Chief: The bearer of this letter, Chow Lan Chu, my houseboi, is a great thief and steals whatever he can lay his hands on. […] ’”

   • 1969, Louis Johnson, “The Way to Train a Dog” (poem), reprinted in Louis Johnson (poet), Terry Sturm (editor), Selected Poems, Victoria University Press (2000), ISBN 978-0-86473-350-4, page 101:

     […] While still a pup, / You put him in a sack, then beat it / With a stick. When howls and yelpings die, / You send the houseboi out to set him free.

   • 1992, Angelika Fremd, The Glass Inferno, University of Queensland Press, ISBN 9780702224225, pages 123–4:

     […] he seduces his houseboi’s wife, his Mary, and fires the houseboi. […] ¶ “You’ve got no authority over my private life. What about your wife, she’s a bit on the dark side, isn't she?” ¶ “I didn’t steal my wife from my houseboi. And we’re legally married.”

   • 2007, Anne Dickson-Waiko, “Colonial Enclaves and Domestic Spaces in British New Guinea”, in Kate Darian-Smith et al. (editors), Britishness abroad: transnational movements and imperial cultures, Melbourne University Press, ISBN 9780522853926, page 222:

     For most colonial wives, the houseboi, the domestic servant, was the first real contact with a native.

Related terms

• boi