These words apply to a person who contributes to the accomplishment of a task. Assistant and helper are nearly identical except for the latter’s greater informality. Because of this difference, helper may seem warmer in tone, implying affection, whereas assistant remains coolly objective.

• She had to admit that her husband was a good helper around the house; It is not unusual for a woman executive to have a man as her assistant .

Furthermore, one might become someone else’s helper out of generosity, whereas assistant usually implies a paid position within a profession and is sometimes part of an official title: a helper on the cake stall; assistant of the sales manager.

Subordinate emphasizes the inferiority of a helper or assistant , and its greater formality does not always mitigate an overtone of condescension, sometimes extending even to contempt.

• The company sergeant-major treated the lieutenants as though they were merely his subordinates .

subordinate can, however, be neutral in tone, merely describing an unequal relationship: a trusted subordinate . Adjutant and aide are drawn from military life to describe the administrative assistant or subordinate of a superior officer. Aide , because of its brevity, has come to be used for an administrative assistant of considerable prestige who acts on behalf of, or as a personal assistant to a high-ranking superior. Aide is also simply an unqualified assistant or subordinate in the special sense of nurse’s aide .