midman

English

Alternative forms

• mid-man

Etymology 1

Blend of midwife +‎ man.

Noun

midman (plural midmen)

1. (rare) A male midwife.

   Coordinate term: midwoman

   • 1976, Alfred White Franklin, Pastoral Paediatrics, page 79:

     In the course of time the man-midwife or midman has displaced the midwife to an assistant position.

   • 1999, Sarah Dolphin [Pseudonym; Sarah Diane Pomerleau], As Beyond, So Below: Dolphins and the Passage Into a New Millennium, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.: Samsarah Rainbow Planet, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     This practice contributes to the emergence of the Earth's Guides of the Passage, in each of us as midwife, or "midman", of the Passage.

   • 2021, Sam Miller, Memoir: Reasons Why I Left the Amish Community, page 123:

     If you do become a midwife or midman, you are allowed to get remarried if you wish to do so.

   • 2023, Jean Towler, Joan Bramall, Midwives in History and Society:

     until fit hospitals can be built and endowed, a midman be appointed in every city or county town, and demonstrate to them the truth of their doctrines on the poor of the neighbourhood, of which there are plenty everywhere.

Etymology 2

Noun

midman (plural midmen)

1. A worker with a status lower than that over master or overseer, but greater than that of apprentice or boy.
   • 1850 October 19, R. J. King-Parker, “Anschar: a Tale of the North”, in The Athenæum, page 1088:

     one of these seats is called in the North the 'house father's chair', and is never filled except by the head of the family; that which stands opposite to it is reserved for the principal guest, or for the midman who is of most importance in the household.

   • 1872, Alex Johnston Warden, Burgh Laws of Dundee, page 98:

     The Lords took the said merchants and craftsmen, on behalf o the Guildry and of the Crafts, bound, obliged, and sworn to abide by the award which should be given on all questions between them by the foresaid arbiters, vizt, Andrew Barrie and John Barrie on behalf of the Guildry, and James Scrymgeor and George Fernie on behalf of the Trades, with Mr William Meldrum, Deane of Dunkeld, as midman and oversman in case of discord—the parties to convene with their arbiters within the parish kirk of Dundee the 1st August next, and to give their final award betwixt that day and the feast of Saint Michael next thereafter, &c., &c.

   • 1966, Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin, “Rocannon's World”, in Three Hainish Novels, Garden City, N.Y.: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., page 10:

     How would a midman dare? O Lady of Kirien, how the great jewel was stolen no mortal knows, not man nor midman nor Fian nor any among the Seven Folk.

2. A paddler who sits in the middle of a long canoe.
   • 1871, Joseph James Hargrave, Red River, page 237:

     On the first visit of Sir George Simpson to Vancouver's Island in 1824, he accompanied the Governor as a midman in his canoes .

   • 2023, Trails of the Pathfinders, page George Bird Grinnell:

     The steersman, finding himself within reach of the shore, jumped upon the rock, with one of the midmen; the other midman, not being sufficiently active, remained in the canoe, which was instantly carried out and lost to view among the high waves.

   • 2023, Sandra Hartline, Muck Creek, page 113:

     When she started to whirl the steersman and the midman jumped on a rock, but Louis LaPlante, may the Lord save his soul, stayed in the boat and was lost.

3. A sailor whose area of responsibility is in the middle of a boat.
   • 1903, Horace Mellard Du Bose, The Planting of the Cross, page 49:

     A leisure-pensioned sailor of the King Who made more knights and sailors by his talks In one short year than half the schools in Spain, As midman in his youth sailed venture-wise Joined with a master seeking coast or isle Unknown, but prospered little

   • 2015, Roberta Kludt Long, Folsom, page 46:

     Sailing his J22 Poco a Poco (USA 377), with midman/tactician Robert Koch and bowman Scott Frederickson, Koch is shown rounding to overtake a fleet of Banshees.