- assistant
- assistant n Assistant, helper, coadjutor, aid, aide, aide-de-camp all denote persons who take over part of the duties of another, especially in a subordinate capacity.Assistant is applicable to a person who meets this description, regardless of the status of his work{
a baker’s assistant
}{a bishop’s assistant
}{a superintendent’s assistant
}Helper often implies apprenticeship in a trade or the status of an unskilled laborer{a bricklayer’s helper
}{a mother’s helper often performs the duties of a nursemaid
}Coadjutor usually implies equivalence except in authority; it may be used either of a co-worker or a volunteer assistant{in working so complex a mechanism as the government of the empire he must have willing coadjutors— Buchan
}{at St. James I met with a kind and cordial coadjutor in my biblical labors in the bookseller of the place— Borrow
}{decided to share the government of the Roman world with a coadjutor— R. M. French
}In a specific use it names or is applied to a bishop who serves as an assistant to the bishop having jurisdiction over a diocese. Especially in Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopal use it implies the right of succession.Aid and aide are often interchangeable synonyms of assistant{a laboratory aid
}{aides and orderlies . . . assist the professional nurses— Nursing World
}Aide frequently but aid rarely denotes a special and often highly qualified assistant able to act as an adviser to his principal{questioned the use of presidential aides in foreign affairs
}{with their chief aides they will discuss the problems of the interregnum— N. Y. Times
}Aide and aide-de-camp designate a military or naval officer who personally attends a general or a sovereign, a president or a governor, often as an escort but sometimes with definitely prescribed duties.
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.