freeman
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See also: Freeman
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From free + -man, paralleled by similar constructions in other Germanic languages. Doublet of preman.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
[edit]freeman (plural freemen)
- A free person, particularly:
- (usually historical) A person who is not a serf or slave.
- (historical) A burgher with full freedom of a city, as opposed to nobles, outsiders, bondsmen, and others.
- An honorary freeman: a person who has received an honorary freedom of a city.
- (usually as two words) A person who is a citizen of a free country, as opposed to a subject of a tyranny or totalitarian dictatorship.
- 1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Poetry: A Metrical Essay”, republished in The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 1862, OCLC 5091562, pages 7–8:
- There breathes no being but has some pretence / To that fine instinct called poetic sense; […] / The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand / The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
- 1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Poetry: A Metrical Essay”, republished in The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 1862, OCLC 5091562, pages 7–8:
- (Australia, historical) A person who immigrated to Australia freely, as opposed to those transported as convicts, or such a transported convict who has regained his freedom.
- (US and Canada, historical) An independent fur trapper.
Synonyms
[edit]Antonyms
[edit]Hyponyms
[edit]- (one who has become free): freedman
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]person who is a citizen of a free country
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