yeoman

UK/ˈjəʊ.mən/US/ˈjoʊ.mən/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,169 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: yeomen, yeomans

A yeoman was a farmer who owned his own small holding. A sturdy yeoman, the yeomen of England, yeoman stock.

The class mattered politically, since owning land brought the vote, and the yeoman archer is the standing image of the English army at Agincourt. Yeoman service means solid dependable work, and the Yeomen of the Guard still exist at the Tower.

Definitions of yeoman

1nounyeomanA farmer who owned his own small holding.C1
“The yeoman worked his own fields with the help of his sons.”

yeoman is a person.

Where it comes from

Middle English yeman, of disputed origin, possibly meaning a young man or a village man.

Proto-Indo-European
*ḱóm
Middle English
yeman
English, today
yeoman

From Middle English yeman, yoman, of disputed etymology:

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

yeoman in the wild

The yeoman social class of medieval and early modern England ranked between the peasantry and the landed gentry.
Yeoman
In the early 15th century, yeoman was the rank of chivalry between page and squire.
Yeoman
The yeoman rate is one of the oldest rates in the U.S.
Yeoman (United States Navy)
In the modern Navy, a yeoman is an enlisted service member who performs administrative and clerical work.
Yeoman (United States Navy)
No sooner was he gone, than Hugh called the stout yeoman into the inner room, and bade him shut the door.
Forest Days: A Romance of Old Times· G. P. R. James

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

← Vocabulary