ME'NIAL, adjective 1. Pertaining to servants or domestic servants; low; mean. The women attendants perform only the most menial offices. [Johnson observes on this passage, that Swift seems not to have known the meaning of this word. But this is the only sense in which it is now used.] 2. Belonging to the retinue or train of servants. Two menial dogs before their master pressed. [If this definition of Johnson is correct, it indicates that menial is from meinez, many, rather than from mesnie, family. But the sense may be house-dogs.]
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI