Ahenchman is a loyalemployee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organisation: minions whose value lies primarily in their unquestioning loyalty to their leader. The termhenchman is often used derisively, or even comically, to refer to individuals of low status who lack any moral compass of their own.
The termhenchman originally referred to one who attended a horse for their employer, that is, ahorse groom. Hence, likeconstable andmarshal, also originally stable staff,henchman became the title of a subordinate official in a royal court or noble household.
The first part of the word, which has been in usage since at least the Middle Ages, comes from theOld Englishhengest, meaning "horse", notablystallion, cognates of which also occur in manyGermanic languages, such as Old Frisian,Danishhingst,German,Dutchhengst andAfrikaanshings [həŋs]. The word appears in the name ofHengest, the Saxon chieftain, and still survives in English in place-names and other names beginning withHingst- orHinx-. It was often rendered asHenxman in medieval English.[1]
Young henchmen, in factpages of honour orsquires, 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 QueenElizabeth I abolished theroyal henchmen, known also as the children of honour. Six or more 'henxmen' are listed in theBlack Book of the Household ofEdward IV, along with a Master, who was to teach them to ride 'cleanly and surely', to bring them to jousts, to show them how to wear their armour, and to instruct them in sundry languages and other 'learnings virtuous'.[1]
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 novelistSir Walter Scott, who took the word and its derivation, according to theNew English Dictionary, fromEdward Burt'sLetters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland, together with its erroneous derivation fromhaunch. The word is, in this sense, synonymous withgillie, 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.[citation needed]
The phrase henchman is also used as a pejorative for the subordinates of any sort of political mastermind or to present others as such. Thus it was used for associates ofPresidentGeorge W. Bush,[2][3] e.g., byVenezuelan PresidentHugo Chávez.[4] Likewise, it was also used against associates of the former U.S. PresidentBill Clinton.[5]Rebekah Brooks has been described as the henchwoman ofRupert Murdoch.[6]
Members of theSS, or any ofAdolf Hitler's staff, are often called "Hitler's Henchmen",[7] a phrase used as the title of a book byGuido Knopp and a television documentary.
Henchmen have been depicted in various capacities across genres of fiction, whether as low-level functionaries or capable lieutenants of major characters. Notable examples include henchmen such asOddjob[8][9] from theJames Bond franchise, who was also paralleled by "Random Task" in theAustin Powers parody film. In animation,Starscream is generally depicted as the second-in-command to the main antagonistMegatron,[10] while more literal depictions of a henchman can be seen in the animated seriesThe Venture Bros. This includes the secondary characters Henchman 21 and 24, among other characters seen in service to the supervillains in the series.[11][12]
The oldest spelling ishenxmen In the third year of Henry VI we find 'Henxmen 3'
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Henchman".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 266.