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huntsman

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Etymology and origin of the English word huntsman

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1567 Maplet, Greene Forest More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Old English huntian,mannian
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English hunt
English huntsman
From the same root
English hunter ← hunt

Pronunciation

  • /ˈhʌntsmən/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English hunt + man, the first element being in the genitive.[2][3][4][5] The OED compares craftsman.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A man who hunts: 1567, in Maplet's Greene Forest.[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1561 and Etymonline the 1560s.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

A specific sense soon joined the general one: from 1600 the word named the manager of a hunt, whose business was the hounds and the pursuit of game.[3] Johnson (1755) kept the two apart, as one who delights in the chase and as the servant who manages it, quoting Spenser's "Like as a huntsman, after weary chace" for the first.[7] The specific sense is now tied especially to fox hunting.[3][6] From 1935 the word is also short for the huntsman spider, a spider of warm regions.[3][4] English dialect had huntsman's cap for the water figwort, in Cornwall, and huntsman's moon for the October moon, in the south of Scotland and Ireland and in Lancashire.[8]

Timeline

  • 1567 – a man who hunts, a hunter.[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this to 1561.[6]
  • 1600 – the manager of a hunt, in charge of the hounds.[3]
  • 1935 – short for huntsman spider.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who hunts; a hunter.[9][6][3]
  2. A person who looks after the hounds and manages them during a hunt, especially in fox hunting.[9][6][3]
  3. Short for huntsman spider, a spider of warm regions.[3][4]

Word family

  • huntsmanship

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Huntsman.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/huntsman. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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