henchman

A henchman (''vernacular:'' "hencher"), is a loyal employee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organization: minions whose value lies primarily in their unquestioning loyalty to their leader. The term ''henchman'' is often used derisively, or even comically, to refer to individuals of low status who lack any moral compass of their own.

The term ''henchman'' originally referred to one who attended a horse for his employer, that is, a horse groom. Hence, like ''constable'' and '' marshal'', also originally stable staff, ''henchman'' became the title of a subordinate official in a royal court or noble household.

Etymology

The first part of the word, which has been in usage since at least the Middle Ages, comes from the Old English ''hengest'', meaning "horse", notably stallion, cognates of which also occur in many Germanic languages, such as Old Frisian, Danish ''hingst'', German, Dutch ''hengst'' and Afrikaans ''hings'' əŋs The word appears in the name of Hengest, the Saxon chieftain, and still survives in English in place-names and other names beginning with ''Hingst-'' or ''Hinx-''. It was often rendered as ''Henxman'' in medieval English.

Young henchmen, in fact pages of honour or squires, rode or walked at the side of their master in processions and the like, and appear in the English royal household from the 14th century until Tudor Queen Elizabeth I abolished the ''royal henchmen'', known also as the children of honour.

The word became obsolete for grooms in English from the middle of the 17th century, but was retained in Scots as "personal attendant of a Highland chief". It was revived in English by way of the novelist Sir Walter Scott, who took the word and its derivation, according to the ''New English Dictionary'', from Edward Burt's ''Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland'', together with its erroneous derivation from ''haunch''. The word is, in this sense, synonymous with gillie, the faithful personal follower of a Highland chieftain, the man who stands at his master's haunch, ready for any emergency.

The modern sense of "obedient or unscrupulous follower" is first recorded 1839, probably based on a misunderstanding of the word as used by Scott, and is often used to describe an out-and-out adherent or partisan, ready to do anything.

Modern examples

The phrase henchman is also used as a pejorative for any sort of political mastermind or to present others as such. Thus it was used for associates of President George W. Bush, e.g., by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Likewise, it was also used against associates of the former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Rebekah Brooks has been described as the henchwoman of Rupert Murdoch.

Members of the SS, or any of Adolf Hitler's staff, are often called "Hitler's Henchmen", a phrase used as the title of a book by Guido Knopp and a television documentary.

Fictional examples

In the novel ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'' Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore shows his teenage student Harry Potter a meeting from years earlier between himself and his former pupil Tom Riddle, who is better known by the title Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore questions Riddle about his motives in coming to ask him for a job at the school and refers to his group of followers known as Death Eaters as his "henchmen".

See also

* Hitman
* Igor (character)
* Nodwick
* Sidekick

References

Bibliography

EtymologyOnLine
* {{EB1911, wstitle=Henchman, volume=13, page=266

Organized crime members by role
Personal care and service occupations
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