Wiktionary
n. One who ceremonially fills and hands the cups in which a drink is served.
Wikipedia
A cup-bearer was an officer of high rank in royal courts whose duty it was to serve the drinks at the royal table. On account of the constant fear of plots and intrigues, a person must be regarded as thoroughly trustworthy to hold the position. He must guard against poison in the king's cup and was sometimes required to swallow some of the wine before serving it. His confidential relations with the king often gave him a position of great influence. The position of cup-bearer is greatly valued and given to only a select few throughout history.
Qualifications for the job were not held lightly but of high esteem valued for their beauty and even more for their modesty, industriousness and courage.
A9
Egyptian hieroglyph for a cup-bearer
The cup-bearer as an honorific role, for example with the Egyptian hieroglyph for a cup-bearer, was used as late as 196 BC in the Rosetta Stone for the Kanephoros cup-bearer Areia, daughter of Diogenes; each Ptolemaic Decree starting with the Decree of Canopus honored a cup-bearer. A much older role was the appointment of Sargon of Akkad as cup-bearer in the 23rd century BC.
Usage examples of "cup-bearer".
But behold our gallant escort--the nomarch ahead, beside us the new cup-bearer and behind us all the rank of the north.
At that feast, Prophetess, I myself as Vizier and the head of the world under him, must serve Ochus as his cup-bearer.
Sultan himself, who like nearly all Malays came aboard in a seamanlike style, followed by his Vizier, many of his council, and his cup-bearer.
The Carver, a comely man with his knives in hand, walked into the Hall followed by the Taster, the Assayers, the Cup-Bearer, the Head Butler, and the Head Panter, all flanked by torchbearers.
The Brotherhood is served by a great retinue of bards, physicians, minstrels, messengers, armorers, falconers, austringers, bowyers, cooks, door-keepers, cup-bearers, and huntsmen, besides the best serving-women in Eldaraigne, who work year-round making raiment of dusken at Sleeve Edhrin.
He had a high chamberlain and a vice-chamberlain, both attired in rich gowns, and provided with white staves, a dozen gentlemen ushers, likewise richly arrayed, six gentlemen waiters, three marshals, a chaplain, an almoner, a cofferer, a clerk of the kitchen and clerk of the spicery, a master cook and his assistants, besides a multitude of yeomen ushers, grooms, cup-bearers, carvers, and sewers.