Dated term for a live-in female domestic servant. Now considered sensitive and often replaced by お手伝いさん or other euphemisms.
See also: お手伝いさん
昔の大きな家には女中が何人もいた。
In old large houses, there were several maidservants.
hostess (in a ryokan); waitress (in a traditional restaurant)
Used for female staff in traditional inns or restaurants, especially those wearing kimono. Still encountered in historical or traditional contexts, but can feel old-fashioned.
The ryokan hostess showed us to our room.
Archaic term for a lady-in-waiting or female attendant at a noble court.
Court ladies in the Heian period attended to the personal needs of the nobility.
Archaic honorific term for a woman of status, similar to 'lady'. Not used in modern Japanese.
Old documents record gifts presented to the ladies.
That household had hired a young woman as a maid.
She went into domestic service as a maid at age fifteen.
仲居 is the standard modern term for a female attendant at a ryokan or traditional restaurant, whereas 女中 in this sense now sounds old-fashioned.
侍女 refers to a lady-in-waiting attending a noblewoman, a slightly different role from the court-lady sense of 女中.
メイド is a neutral loanword for a maid, often used for Western-style or fictional maids, unlike the historically loaded 女中.
counter for people
Compound of 女 (woman) and 中 (inside, among), originally referring to a woman serving inside a household or court. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the term has been used since the Heian period.