Advertisement

Origin and history of yeoman

yeoman(n.)

c. 1300, yeman, "freeborn male attendant in a noble household," a word of unknown origin, perhaps a contraction of Old English iunge man "young man," or from an unrecorded Old English *geaman (compare Old Frisian gaman "villager") from Old English -gea "district, region, village." This is cognate with Old Frisian ga, ge, German Gau, Gothic gawi, from Proto-Germanic *gaujan.

The sense of "commoner who cultivates his land" is recorded from early 15c.; also the third order of fighting men (late 14c., below knights and squires, above knaves), noted for strength and bravery in battle, hence yeoman's service "powerful or efficient aid, support, or help" (c. 1600).

The meaning "naval petty officer in charge of supplies" is attested from 1660s. Yeowoman is recorded by 1892: "Then I am yeo-woman O the clumsy word!" [Tennyson, "The Foresters"]

The proper modern spelling is yoman, the eo being appar. due to an attempt to represent in one spelling the two variants yeman and yoman ; the eo has no justification, as it has to some extent in people. [Century Dictionary]

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to yeoman

boor(n.)

early 14c., "country-man, peasant farmer, rustic," from Old French bovier "herdsman," from Latin bovis, genitive of bos "cow, ox." This was reinforced by or merged with native Old English gebur "dweller, farmer, peasant" (unrelated but similar in sound and sense), and 16c. by its Dutch cognate boer, from Middle Dutch gheboer "fellow dweller," from Proto-Germanic *buram "dweller," especially "farmer" (compare German Bauer), from PIE root *bheue- "to be, exist, grow."

"A word of involved history in and out of English, though the ultimate etymology is clear enough" [OED]. In English it often was applied to agricultural laborers in or from other lands, as opposed to the native yeoman; the negative transferred sense of "one who is rude in manners," attested by 1560s (in boorish), is from the city-dweller's notion of clownish rustics. Related: Boorishness.

gau(n.)

ancient German territorial and administrative division, originally comprising several villages, from Old High German gawi, from Proto-Germanic *gauja-, which is of uncertain origin. surviving in place names such as Breisgau and Oberammergau; also in gauleiter (with leiter "leader"), title of the local political leaders under the Nazi system. Compare the first element in yeoman.

Advertisement

More to explore

Christopher
Medallions with his image (called Christophers) worn by travelers are known from the Middle Ages (Chaucer's Yeoman had one...
gentleman
gentleman, gentleman-of-arms, gentleman-usher, etc.), hence in England the word often meant any man above the social rank of a yeoman...
corset
late 14c. (mid-13c. in Anglo-Latin), "a kind of laced bodice, close-fitting body garment," from Old French corset (13c.) "bodice, tunic," diminutive of cors "body," from Latin corpus "body" (from PIE root *kwrep- "body, form, appearance"). Meaning "stiff supporting and constricti
sector
1560s, in geometry, "a section of a circle between two radii," from Late Latin sector "section of a circle," in classical Latin "a cutter, one who cuts," from sectus, past participle of secare "to cut" (from PIE root *sek- "to cut"). Sector translated Greek tomeus in Latin editio
man
"a featherless plantigrade biped mammal of the genus Homo" [Century Dictionary], Old English man, mann "human being, person (male or female); brave man, hero;" also "servant, vassal, adult male considered as under the control of another person," from Proto-Germanic *mann- (source
the
definite article, late Old English þe, nominative masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun and adjective. After c.950, it replaced earlier se (masc.), seo (fem.), þæt (neuter), and probably represents se altered by the th- form which was used in all the masculine oblique cases
guard
early 15c., "one who keeps watch, a body of soldiers," also "care, custody, guardianship," and the name of a part of a piece of armor, from French garde "guardian, warden, keeper; watching, keeping, custody," from Old French garder "to keep, maintain, preserve, protect" (see guar
Stepin Fetchit
type of stereotypical Black roles in Hollywood, or in popular culture generally, from the stage name of popular Black vaudeville actor Lincoln Theodore Perry (1902-1985), who first appeared in films under that name in "In Old Kentucky" (1927). Perry said he took the name from a r
mercurial
late 14c., "pertaining to or under the influence of the planet Mercury," from Latin Mercurialis, from Mercurius (see Mercury). Meaning "pertaining to the god Mercury, having the form or qualities attributed to Mercury" (in reference to his role as god of trade or as herald and gu
square
mid-13c., "mason's tool for measuring right angles, carpenter's square," from Old French esquire "a square, squareness," from Vulgar Latin *exquadra, a back-formation from *exquadrare "to square," from Latin ex "out" (see ex-) + quadrare "make square, set in order, complete," fro

Share yeoman

Advertisement
Trending
Dictionary entries near yeoman
Advertisement