Abigail

Abigail (Hebrew Abigayil, perhaps "father is joy"), or Abigal (2 Samuel 3:3), in the Bible, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite, on whose death she became the wife of David (1 Samuel 25). By her David had a son, whose name appears in the Hebrew of 2 Samuel 3:3 as Chileab, in the Septuagint as Daluyah, and in 1 Chronicles 3:1 as Daniel. The name Abigail was also borne by a sister of David (2 Samuel 17:25; 1 Chronicles 2:16 and following). From the former (self-styled handmaid 1 Samuel 25:25 and following) is derived the colloquial use of the term for a waiting-woman (cf. Abigail, the waiting gentlewoman, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady).