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MAID.—The English words ‘maid,’ ‘maiden’ represent three Greek words: êïñÜóéïí (Mat_9:24 f. Authorized Version ‘maid,’ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘damsel’); ἡ ðáῖò (Luk_8:51 Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘maiden’; Luk_8:54 Authorized Version ‘maid,’ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘maiden’); and ðáéäßóêç (Mat_26:69, Joh_18:17 Authorized Version ‘damsel,’ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘maid’; Mar_14:66; Mar_14:69, Luk_22:56 Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘maid’; Luk_12:45 Authorized Version ‘maidens,’ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘maidservants’). The first two clearly signify ‘young girl,’ answering to the Aramaic talîtha (cf. Mar_5:41 and Luk_8:54 : for a discussion of the Aramaic form see art. Talitha cumi). Talîtha seems to have been frequently employed in the sense of ‘young woman.’ In the Targums it is used of Dinah, Miriam, and Esther. It and its Greek equivalents have almost that meaning as applied to the daughter of Jairus. êïñÜóéïí seems to have lost its diminutive force in later Greek and to have been no longer employed as a familiar term, but to have been virtually equivalent to êüñç , ðáéäßóêç , the feminine of ðáéäßóêïò , originally a diminutive of ðáῖò , meant in the first instance ‘girl’ and then ‘domestic female servant’ or ‘slave.’ It has the latter meaning in the Gospels. In some passages in the LXX Septuagint (Exo_20:10, Lev_25:44 etc.) it represents ’âmâh (cf. art. Handmaid). It seems to have been used especially of a doorkeeper (Gospels, Act_12:13, Lysias cited by Wetstein). That it often referred to a slave, not a hired servant, is evident from the passages quoted by Wetstein from the grammarians, and seems to be implied in the contrast between ðáéäßóêçò and ἐëåõèÝñáò in Gal_4:22.
Literature.—Wetstein on Mat_26:69; Levy, Chaldäisches Wörterbuch, i. 303b; Swete on Mar_14:66,
W. Taylor Smith.