Other forms: foremen
The foreman is the one on site who tells everybody else what happens next — a worker himself, put in charge of the crew. The different coloured hat, the rolled-up drawings under one arm, the shout across the yard.
A foreman runs a building crew, a factory floor, a farm, a printing works: close to the work rather than up in an office, and answerable for the pace of it. Separately, the foreman of a jury is the juror chosen to speak for the others and to read the verdict out in court. The plural is foremen, and the word carries its man on the front, so newer workplaces say supervisor or team leader and a jury has a forewoman or a foreperson. Do not stretch it to mean boss in general — a foreman is over a crew, not over a company.
1nounforemanThe worker in charge of a crew on a site or a factory floor.
“The foreman sent everyone home when the rain came.”
synonyms: supervisor, overseer
2nounmemberThe member of a jury who speaks for it and reads out the verdict.
“The foreman stood up and read out the verdict.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
foreman is a supervisor.
FOREman → FOUR men
Four men in yellow hats stand in a line holding one long pipe. A fifth man walks out in front of them, holds up his hand, and all four stop at the same second.
hooks ontofour
It is as plain as it looks: the fore man, the one at the front. English has had it since the Middle Ages, when it was written foremon, and half of northern Europe built the same word out of the same two pieces — Dutch voorman, German Vormann, Danish formand, Icelandic formaður. Every one of them the man in front of the work.
Middle English
foremon
English, today
foreman
From Middle English foremon, forman. Compare West Frisian foarman, Dutch voorman, German Vormann, Danish formand, Swedish förman, Icelandic formaður. by surface analysis, en + fore + man.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA