henchman [ME] The original sense of this was probably ‘a groom’ and earlier than our records, as the word appears in early Latin documents including one from the 1340s where it is associated with the master of the King’s Horse. It is from Old English hengest ‘stallion’, and *man. The first part also features in the name of the semi-mythological leader Hengist (and Horsa meaning ‘horse’), who supposedly came to Britain at the invitation of the British King Vortigern in 449 to assist in defeating the Picts. From the Middle Ages a henchman was a squire or page of honour to a person of great rank; in Scotland he was the principal attendant of a Highland chief. The word was taken up by Sir Walter Scott, whose novels were hugely popular throughout the 19th century, and Scott gave henchman to the wider world. The current sense, ‘a criminal’s follower’, began in the early 20th century in the USA.