Noun: headsman
| Singular | headsman |
| Plural | headsmen |
Sample Sentences
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And of those base-minded jesters or buffons, some have beene seene, that even at the point of death would never leave their jesting and scoffing. He whom the heads-man threw off from the Gallowes cried out, ‘Row the Gally,’ which was his ordinarie by-word. [1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:]
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And made him Headsman, for we said, / "Who's next to be decapited / Cannot cut off another's head / Until he's cut his own off[…]" [1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC:]
Nouns inflected like headsman
whipman,
slaughterman,
seaman,
sawman,
saxman,
sanman,
headswoman,
kettleman,
given man,
skyman,
Manilaman,
boogyman,
brotherman,
beadman,
transgentleman,
baggageman,
first gentleman,
bedeman,
boothman,
hackneyman, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle English heddysman, equivalent to head + -s- + -man. Cognate with Scots hedisman, heidisman (“head man; chief; commander”). Compare also Danish høvedsmand (“captain”), Swedish hövitsman (“captain”), Icelandic höfuðsmaður (“captain”), German Hauptmann (“captain”). See: Middle English Nouns '
heddysman', Swedish Nouns '
hövitsman', Icelandic Nouns '
höfuðsmaður', German Nouns '
Hauptmann'.
Verbs referencing "headsman"
Swedish Nouns
hövitsman.