belowstairsとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

below +‎ stairs

副詞

belowstairs (not comparable)

1. (dated) On a floor lower than the one a speaker currently occupies; below the main floor of a multi-floor building.

   Synonym: downstairs

   Antonyms: abovestairs, upstairs

   • 1691, Thomas D’Urfey, Love for Money, or, The Boarding School, London: J. Hindmarsh and Abel Roper, Act V, Scene 1, p. 45,^[1]

     I’le lock her into her Sister’s Room below Stairs, for to night, there’s no Balcony there.

   • 1752, William Stukeley, Memoirs of Isaac Newton's life

     it was talkd, that there was an old gentleman belowstairs whom they fancied to be Sr. Isaac Newton.

   • 1952, Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, New York: Norton, 2004, Chapter 8, p. 94,^[2]

     She felt immensely superior to him suddenly, to all the people below stairs.

2. (Britain) In the areas of the lowest level of a large house in which house staff works.
   • a. 1631, John Donne, letter to H. Goodere, in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour written by John Donne, London: Richard Marriot, 1651, pp. 158-159,^[3]

     My daughter Constance is at this time with me; or the emptinesse of the town, hath made me, who otherwise live upon the almes of others, a houskeeper, for a moneth; and so she is my servant below stairs, and my companion above:

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, London: W. Chetwood and T. Edling, p. 21,^[4]

     It was his younger Sisters Chamber, that I was in, and as there was no Body in the House, but the Maids below Stairs, he was it may be the ruder:

   • 1904, Henry James, The Golden Bowl, New York: Scribner, Volume 1, Book 1, Part 2, Chapter 11, pp. 200-201,^[5]

     […] those fortunate bachelors, or other gentlemen of pleasure, who so manage their entertainment of compromising company that even the austerest housekeeper, occupied and competent below-stairs, never feels obliged to give warning.

形容詞

belowstairs (not comparable)

1. (dated) Located on a floor lower than the one a speaker currently occupies, or below the main floor of a multi-floor building.

   Synonym: downstairs

   Antonyms: abovestairs, upstairs

   • 1953, Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking, Chapter 4, p. 57,^[6]

     In the tiny below-stairs office a moody-looking matron took the papers and signed him into the ledger.

2. (Britain) Taking place in the areas of the lowest level of a large house in which house staff works.
   • 1972, Robertson Davies, The Manticore, Toronto: New Canadian Library, 2015, Part 2, Chapter 1,^[7]

     Children always lived closer to the servants than their elders, and Caroline and I never knew where we stood with anybody, and sometimes found ourselves hostages in dark, below-stairs intrigues.

名詞

belowstairs (複数形 belowstairs)

1. (Britain) The areas of a large house in which house staff works.
2. (Britain) The staff that works in such areas.