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Retainer agreement, a contract in which an employer pays in advance for work, to be secured or specified later, when required; Domestic worker or servant, especially one who has been with one family for a long time (chiefly British English) Affinity (medieval), also Retinue, a person or group gathered around in the service of a lord
A retainer agreement is a work-for-hire contract. It falls between a one-off contract and permanent employment, which may be full-time or part-time. [1] Its distinguishing feature is that the client or customer pays in advance for professional work to be specified later. The purpose of a retainer fee is to ensure that the employed reserves time ...
Such retainers were not necessarily in the domestic service or otherwise normally close to the presence of their lord, but also include others who wore his livery (a kind of uniform, in distinctive colours) and claimed his protection, such as musicians and tutors.
A lady's companion was a woman of genteel birth who lived with a woman of rank or wealth as retainer. The term was in use in the United Kingdom from at least the 18th century to the mid-20th century but it is now archaic. The profession is known in most of the Western world.
In post-classical history, an affinity was a collective name for the group of (usually) men whom a lord gathered around himself in his service; it has been described by one modern historian as "the servants, retainers, and other followers of a lord", [1] and as "part of the normal fabric of society". [2]
Pool person – A worker who works by the swimming pool. Postilion - Rode the left horse if there was no coachman. Retainer (Retinue and Affinity) – A servant, especially one who has been with one family for a long time (chiefly British English). [76] Scullery maid – The lowest-ranking of the domestic workers who act as assistants to the ...
The term minstrel derives from Old French ménestrel (also menesterel, menestral), which is a derivative from Italian ministrello (later menestrello), from Middle Latin ministralis "retainer", an adjective form of Latin minister, "attendant" from minus, "lesser".
A retainer's relationship to his lord was also supposed to be placed above his ties to his kin. For example, in the story of "Cynewulf and Cyneheard," the comitatus was shown to be more important than ties to kinship for the members of the warrior class, warriors choosing to remain loyal to their lords even if this decision meant killing some ...