workman

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English werkman,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English weorcmann (“workman, labourer”),^[6][7][3][2] a compound of weorc (“work”) and mann (“man”).^[3][8] Wiktionary traces it through Proto-West Germanic *werkamann to Proto-Germanic *werkamann-.^[1] The OED lists the cognate or parallel compounds Old Dutch werkman, Dutch werkman, Middle Low German werkman, Old High German wercman, Old Norse verkmaðr (“worker, labourer”) and Old Swedish värkman, all meaning a worker or craftsman.^[9][2] Wulfstan used the plural for the labouring order of society, Latin labōratores.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A man employed to do manual work: early Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Boethius, which says that a king must have men who pray, men who fight and weorcmen.^[9][6] The Lindisfarne Gospels use it to gloss Latin operarius.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word meant both a hired labourer or servant and a practitioner of a skilled craft;^[4] the OED dates the craftsman sense to about 1300, Etymonline to about 1200.^[9][2] Chaucer used werkman seven times and Gower once.^[10] From 1440, in Capgrave, God was called the great workman, the Creator.^[9] From 1484, in Caxton, the word was qualified by an adjective for a person of a given skill, as in the proverb a bad workman blames his tools, recorded from before 1633 in G. Herbert's Outlandish Proverbs.^[9] Johnson (1755) defined it as an artificer or maker.^[11] From 1704, in Defoe, to 1906 it also named the working class as a whole,^[9] and in the 19th century it was used of social insects (now worker) and in hunting of a skilful rider.^[9] In criminal slang from 1552 a workman was a dice cheat, and by 1829 a card-sharp.^[12] In Scots and in Somerset and Devon dialect it meant a farm labourer or unskilled jobbing labourer.^[13]

Timeline

• early Old English – a man employed to do manual work.^[9][6]
• c. 1300 – a skilled craftsman.^[9]
• 1440 – God, the Creator.^[9]
• 1484 – with an adjective, a person of a specified skill.^[9]
• 1552 – a dice cheat (criminal slang).^[12]
• before 1633 – a bad workman blames his tools.^[9]
• 1704 – a member of the working class (obsolete by 1906).^[9]
• 1809 – a worker among social insects (obsolete by 1870).^[9]
• 1832 – in hunting, a skilful rider (obsolete by 1908).^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A man employed in manual labour or to work a machine, especially on a building or repair job: Workmen were repairing the church roof.^[14][3][9]
2. A person who works with a given level of skill; a craftsman or artisan: a careful workman.^[14][3][9]
3. (archaic) God as the maker of the world.^[9][3]

Word family

• subworkman
• underworkman
• workmanlike
• workmanly
• workmanship

Related words

• worker
• workwoman
• work
• man
• working man

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins