[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] putsfrau

[Lloyd Friedrick]

Is the Volhynian German word “putzfrau”  somewhat derogatory ?   

I used this term in in reference to my grandmother, she was in the employ of my grandfather’s household in Volhynia. His first wife died rather suddenly leaving quite a few young children. Grandfather married my grandmother shortly after this tragic event.

My father described her with this term. I used it in a family newsletter and my cousins in Bavaria reacted with outrage that I would use such a term

Perhaps dialect and German language form is different in Bavaria.

Lloyd Friedrick in Victoria, British Columbia