A footman was a male servant who worked in wealthy households, especially in Britain during the 1700s and 1800s. Footmen wore fancy uniforms (often including white gloves and powdered wigs) and performed duties like opening doors, serving meals, carrying messages, and riding on the back of carriages. You might recognize footmen from period movies or shows set in grand estates: they're the servants who stand at attention in entrance halls or follow aristocratic families around to help with whatever they need.

The job required good posture, a neat appearance, and discretion. Footmen were often chosen partly for their height and good looks, since wealthy families wanted impressive-looking servants to show off their status. While the position might sound glamorous, it meant long hours of standing and waiting, always ready to serve but rarely noticed unless something went wrong.

Today, footmen still work in a few royal households and very traditional estates, but the role has mostly disappeared. The word sometimes appears in historical fiction: in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr. Tumnus mentions the White Witch turning a footman to stone. The term can also mean a servant or assistant more generally, though this usage is quite old-fashioned now.