WhEre WorDs WandeR #9: Chamberlain

Origins
1175-1225; Middle English < Old French, variant of chamberlenc < 
Frankish*kamerling, equivalent to kamer (< Latin camera room; see chamber ) + -ling -ling1

chamberlain in the Bible

a confidential servant of the king (Gen. 37:36; 39:1). In Rom. 16:23 mention is made of "Erastus the chamberlain." Here the word denotes the treasurer of the city, or the quaestor, as the Romans styled him. He isalmost the only convert from the higher ranks of whom mention is made(comp. Acts 17:34). Blastus, Herod's "chamberlain" (Acts 12:20), was his personal attendant or valet-de-chambre. The Hebrew word _saris_, thus translated in Esther 1:10, 15; 2:3, 14, 21, etc., properly means an eunuch(as in the marg.), as it is rendered in Isa. 39:7; 56:3.

"Taken" slays box office; Hollywood old guard slays "Selma"

Finale to Fox’s vengeance franchise powers to $40 million triumph as Oscar hopeful “Selma” stumbles in expansion

Liam Neeson and “Taken 3” went out with a loud bang at the box office this weekend, opening to a better-than-expected $40.4 million as the highly regarded civil rights drama “Selma” stumbled in its national expansion.
The final installment of the EuropaCorp vengeance movie franchise that turned the 62-year-old Neeson into an action star knocked “The Hobbit” out of the top spot after three weeks with the second-best January opening ever, and easily outpaced the weekend’s other wide opener, the awards hopeful “Selma.” And with another $41 million in grosses from overseas, “Taken 3″ had an $81 million weekend globally.
Paramount Pictures expanded “Selma” from 22 to 2,179 theaters and it wound up second with an estimated $11.2 million three-day total, under the expectations of analysts and the studio. By comparison, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” opened to $24.6 million last year, but that was in far more theaters (2,933) and August, a less-competitive slot for awards hopefuls.The underwhelming debut capped a tough week for the Ava DuVernay-directed drama, which was overlooked for top honors at the British Academy Film Awards nominations Friday, after being similarly snubbed by the Producers Guild earlier in the week.

“Selma” was expected to land in the mid to high-teen millions by analysts and the studio. It had performed strongly and earned $2 million in limited release since opening in 23 theaters on Christmas Day. But making the mainstream leap may take some time for the historical drama based on the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights marches in Alabama. The film has been drawn into a controversy after questions surrounding the historical accuracy of the relationship between Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson.