Famulus

Famulus is a noun that refers to a private secretary or assistant. Coming from the Latin word for ‘servant,’ our word of the day may be used to describe any kind of assistant, but is especially common in referring to the assistant of a magician or scholar. You’d think after all those years of being a magician’s famulus, my sister would be skilled at magic. But when I ask her to make something disappear she reminds me that a magician’s assistant doesn’t actually perform the tricks.