[L. genitive pl. of famulus a servant.] The name given to a prayer in the Mass for the Commemoration of the living, beginning Memento, Domine, famulorum famularumque tuarum.
c. 1380[?]. Wyclif, Eng. Wks. (1880), 134. Here special preiere, as famulorum & benefactorum. Ibid., Sel. Wks., III. 441. Þai say furst one Famulorum saide of a frere is better þen a Pater noster.
1401. Political Poems (Rolls), II. 103.
But wel I wote that alle ȝe | |
gate never a peny, | |
with the pater-noster, | |
but with ȝoure famulorum, | |
that ȝe sey is beter, | |
ȝe gete many poundes. |