[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by JennyHallu

I think perhaps we should say "serving girl" rather than "wench".

"Wench", according to the Houghton Mifflin thesaurus, means a vulgar woman who flouts propriety. Seems to have definite connotations on the wanton side of things, and though it would be common practice for a medieval innkeeper, I doubt any Middle-Earth lord such as Eodwine rents out his girls.

From Online Etymology Dictionary comes this:

wench
c.1290 wenche "girl or young woman," shortened from wenchel "child" (12c.), from O.E. wencel, probably related to wancol "unsteady, fickle, weak," and cognate with O.N. vakr "child, weak person," O.H.G. wanchal "fickle." The word degenerated through being used in ref. to servant girls, and by 1362 was being used in a sense of "woman of loose morals, mistress." The verb meaning "to associate with common women" is from 1599.

"The wenche is nat dead, but slepith." [Wyclif, Matt. ix.24, c.1380]

In Rohan we are dealing with a culture that is pre-1362.

Thanks, Foley, I will correct the error.