Other forms: statesmen
A statesman is a political leader respected for wisdom and long service. An elder statesman.
The word is nearly always earned late and often only after leaving office. A statesman is said to think of the next generation where a politician thinks of the next election.
1nounstatesmanA political leader respected for wisdom and long service.
“He became a statesman about ten years after anybody would vote for him.”
statesman is a leader.
State plus an -s- plus man, modelled on the French homme d'Etat.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂-
Middle English
stat
English
state
English, today
statesman
Built from
From state + -s- + -man, modelled after French homme d'État. state comes from Middle English stat. From Middle English stat (as a noun); adopted c. 1200 from both Old French estat and Latin stātus (“manner of standing, attitude, position, carriage, manner, dress, apparel; and other senses”), from stō (“to stand”). a doublet of estate and status. The sense of "polity" develops in the 14th century. Compare French être, Greek στέω, Italian stare, Portuguese estar, Romanian sta, and Spanish estar. The verb is first attested around the beginning of the 16th century. Related to English stand. Displaced native Old English hād (“state, condition”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA