freeman en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
- /ˈfɹiː.mən/
- /ˈfɹiːˌmæn/
Etymology
From Old English frēomann, equivalent to free + -man and paralleled by similar constructions in other Germanic languages. Doublet of preman.
Meanings
-
(historical, usually) A free person ▸ A person who is not a serf or slave.
[Editor David W. Blight said:] Deeply in need of father figures and spiritual hope, and “religiously seeking knowledge,” as he recalled it, the slave boy [the young Frederick Douglass] turned to a religious black man, a freeman named Charles Lawson, who worked as a drayman for a rope maker and lived on Happy Alley in Fells Point. Frederick spent countless hours with Lawson in the drayman’s shack reading the bible aloud, singing hymns, and praying together. “I could teach him the letter, but he could teach me the spirit,” Douglass remembered. Throughout his life Douglass would teach his teachers and learn from them at the same time. From old Lawson he gained […] above all […] a belief in a benevolent and protective God, the faith that his “life was under the guidance of a wisdom higher than my own.”
1997 [1797], David W. Blight, “Editor's Introduction: The Peculiar Dialogue Between Caleb Bingham and Frederick Douglass”, in Caleb Bingham, edited by David W. Blight, The Columbian Orator, Bicentennial Edition (1997 republishing), New York University Press, →ISBN:
- (historical) A free person ▸ A burgher with full freedom of a city, as opposed to nobles, outsiders, bondsmen, and others.
- A free person ▸ A person who has received an honorary freedom of a city.
-
(as two words, usually) A free person ▸ A person who is a citizen of a free country, as opposed to a subject of a tyranny or totalitarian dictatorship.
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 free person ▸ A person who immigrated to Australia freely, as opposed to those transported as convicts, or such a transported convict who has regained his freedom.
- (Canada, US, historical) A free person ▸ An independent furtaker.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| freemen | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Antonyms
nonfreeman · bondsman · slave · serf
Deriveds
Harry Freeman's · freeman's quay · freeman's · freeman on the land · nonfreeman · freemanship · freemanlike · freeman's key
Hypernyms
citizen · person · resident · burgess · burgher · person · furtaker
Translations (19)
pl wolny obywatel (person who is a citizen of a free country) · be во́льны чалаве́к (person who is a citizen of a free country) · ko 자유인 (person who is a citizen of a free country) · tum mwanangwa (person who is not a serf or slave) · ko 자유민 (person who is a citizen of a free country) · uk ві́льна люди́на (person who is a citizen of a free country) · de Kerl (person who is not a serf or slave) · ru свобо́дный челове́к (person who is a citizen of a free country) · ru во́льный (person who is not a serf or slave) · fi vapaa mies (person who is not a serf or slave) · fi vapaan maan kansalainen (person who is a citizen of a free country) · pl wolna obywatelka (person who is a citizen of a free country) · ja 自由人 (person who is a citizen of a free country) · fr homme libre (person who is not a serf or slave) · he בֶּן חוֹרִין (person who is a citizen of a free country) · fi vapaa (person who is not a serf or slave) · cmn 自由民 (person who is a citizen of a free country) · ja 自由民 (person who is a citizen of a free country) · pl człowiek wolny (person who is not a serf or slave)