the.com/attendant
Someone paid to be nearby in case you need them, and sometimes to pretend not to notice you.
means A person whose job is to be present and ready to help with a particular task, place, or person — or, as an adjective, something that comes along with and naturally accompanies something else.
from From Old French 'atendant', the present participle of 'atendre' — to attend, to wait for, to pay heed — which traces back to Latin 'attendere', literally 'to stretch toward' (ad- 'toward' + tendere 'to stretch'). The image underneath is oddly physical: someone stretching their attention like a rope toward you, staying taut and ready. By the time it settled into English, the word had split into the person who waits-and-serves and the condition that simply tags along — 'attendant circumstances' being the ones stretched alongside the main event.
- origin
- from latin attendere, to stretch toward
- flight version
- memorizes exits you ignore every time
- etiquette
- trained to smile through your worst day
- parking kind
- knows your car better than you do