girl Friday

noun

, Older Use: Sometimes Offensive.

, plural girl Fridays.

1. gal Friday.

girl Friday

noun

1. a female employee who has a wide range of duties, usually including secretarial and clerical work

Word History and Origins

Origin of girl Friday¹

First recorded in 1935–40; modeled on man Friday

Word History and Origins

Origin of girl Friday¹

C20: coined on the pattern of man Friday

Idioms and Phrases

Also, gal Friday . An efficient and faithful female assistant, as in I'll have my girl Friday get the papers together . The expression plays on man Friday , a name for a devoted male servant or assistant. The name Friday comes from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe , whose shipwrecked hero named the young native who became his faithful companion for the day of the week when he found him. In the mid-1900s Friday was applied to a male servant and then a women secretary or clerk who works for a man. The expression girl Friday gained currency through a motion picture starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, His Girl Friday (1940). Today it tends to be considered condescending and, applied to a woman, sexist.