janitor

[jan-i-ter]

noun

1. a person employed in an apartment house, office building, school, etc., to clean the public areas, remove garbage, and do minor repairs; caretaker.

2. Archaic.,  a doorkeeper or porter.

verb (used without object)

1. to be employed as a janitor.

janitor

/ ˌdʒænɪˈtɔːrɪəl, ˈdʒænɪtə /

noun

1. the caretaker of a building, esp a school

2. a person employed to clean and maintain a building, esp the public areas in a block of flats or office building; porter

Other Word Forms

• janitorial adjective
• underjanitor noun
• janitress noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of janitor¹

First recorded in 1575–85; from Latin jānitor “doorkeeper,” equivalent to jāni- (combining form of jānus “doorway, covered passage”) + -tor -tor

Word History and Origins

Origin of janitor¹

C17: from Latin: doorkeeper, from jānua door, entrance, from jānus covered way (compare _Janus ¹ ); related to Latin īre to go

Example Sentences

The film’s last act follows a massive reenactment at a Medford, Ore., high school, where a “mass casualty drill” was scheduled after a janitor turned himself into police before acting on homicidal thoughts.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Charley finds direction when a neighborhood janitor invites him into a pickup game.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

As cover, he worked as a janitor in a building where many American embassy officials lived—but apparently the KGB didn’t buy it.

Read more on Literature

A museum guard stood outside the bathroom, and janitors cleaned the piece every 15 minutes or so.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Marty comes of age in the Hill Valley of 1985, where vandals have shellacked the high school with so much graffiti that the janitors seem to have given up.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• attendant 
• custodian 
• sitter 
• superintendent