Both the character Zanni, and a collective term referring to all servants, especially in the early days of Commedia dell'Arte when they were mostly called Zan.

Zanni (from the Italian, dialectal nickname for Giovanni) was the archetype of the comic servant characters of the Commedia dell'arte. The character of Zanni was an older, impoverished man and hired servant of one of the other characters, typically Pantalone.