คนใช้

Explanation

The word is formed from คน (“person”) and ใช้ (“use”), but as an established noun it primarily means a servant or domestic worker in a private household. It takes คน as its classifier: คนใช้สองคน means “two domestic workers.” In modern usage, a more specific job title may be preferred when the person’s duties are known, such as แม่บ้าน for a housekeeper or พี่เลี้ยงเด็ก for a babysitter. When an object follows ใช้, as in คนใช้รถ, the phrase can instead be parsed as คน (“person”) plus ใช้รถ (“uses a car”), meaning “a person who uses a car.” This is a grammatical phrase rather than a separate lexical sense of คนใช้.

Usage

The word commonly appears in discussions of domestic service, wealthy households, and stories depicting traditional or historical household life. It is still readily understood today, although a more specific occupational term is often preferred when describing a real person’s job.

Caution

For a user of a product or service, ผู้ใช้ is the usual noun. Using คนใช้ by itself will normally be understood as “servant.” Calling someone คนใช้ directly may also sound demeaning, so a specific and respectful job title is often safer.

1 domestic servant synonyms

• คนรับใช้

  คนรับใช้ also means “servant,” but it can sound somewhat old-fashioned and emphasize a subordinate role. คนใช้ is the shorter, more common term, though both require sensitivity when referring to someone directly.

• แม่บ้าน

  mɛ̂ɛ bâan housekeeper

  แม่บ้าน, when used as a job title, usually means a housekeeper or cleaning worker and often describes the person’s actual duties more neutrally and specifically than คนใช้.