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Glite Dictionary
housemaid's knee

housemaid's knee

8.6
Swelling at the front of the knee caused by kneeling or injury
  • noun
  • /ˈhaʊsˌmeɪdz ni/
  • Specialized
translation icon : bursitis prepatelar
  • After hours of scrubbing the floors, she was left with painful housemaid's knee from kneeling on the hard tiles.

Examples

  • Oh, it's no use Guy, mine has housemaid's knee.

    The Gay Divorcee (1934)

  • Due to her job as a cleaner, she frequently suffers from housemaid's knee caused by prolonged kneeling.

  • The doctor explained that housemaid's knee is common among people who spend a lot of time kneeling or crawling.

Synonyms

bursitis
vshousemaid's knee
  • Specialized
6 8.0

Swelling and pain in a small soft pad near a joint that makes movement painful

is limited to swelling at the front of the knee after kneeling or trauma

How Severe

housemaid's knee
  • Specialized
8.6
inflammation
  • Specialized
53 3.7
swelling
3 3.7
irritation
21 3.2

Surface Forms

housemaid's knee singular
housemaids' knees plural

Morphology

housemaid's + knee

The compound clearly links 'housemaid' (a person who kneels when cleaning) with 'knee', so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a knee problem associated with housemaids/kneeling. However, the exact clinical meaning (prepatellar bursitis, specific swelling of the bursa) is more specific than the simple constituent combination, so the full sense is not completely predictable.

Etymology

Housemaid's knee is named after housemaids who often kneeled to scrub floors, because kneeling on hard ground made the front of the knee swell. That's why it means 'a swelling at the front of the knee'.