Dictionary

sandman en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈsænd.mæn/ (UK, US)
• audio

Etymology

From sand + -man. The mythological sense may be from German Sandmann, Sandmännchen, as it is apparently first attested in English in the context of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella The Sandman (1816). The German is attested in the relevant sense since at least the mid-18th century.

Meanings

1. A figure that brings sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand into people's eyes.
   • This then was the Sandman; but what was his occupation, and what was his purpose ? The nursery-maid being applied to, gave a nursery-maid's explanation, that the Sandman was a bad man, who flung sand in the eyes of little children who did not go to bed. 1827, “On the Supernatural in Composition; and particularly on the Works of Ernest Theodore William Hoffman”, in Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, volume 11, page 458:
2. Used as a symbol of the passage of time toward death.
3. (obsolete) A seller of sand.
   • 1811, Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Consisting of One Thousand and One Stories, Told by the Sultaness of the Indies, Henry Mozley (publ.), page 114. While I was out, a sandman, who sells scouring sand, which women use to clean the baths with, passed through our street, and called, Any sand ho !

Forms

Translations (25)

ga Seán Ó Néill (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · fi unijukka (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · mr सँडमॅन (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · bg Съ́нчо (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · nl Klaas Vaak (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · cy Huwcyn (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · de Sandmann (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · fi nukkumatti (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · de Sandmännchen (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · da Ole Lukøje (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · gd Bodach nan Casan-clòimhe (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · fr marchand de sable (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · cy Siôn Cwsg (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · gd MacSuain (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · it omino del sonno (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · gd Dòmhnall Sàmhach (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · ro Moș Ene (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · ru песо́чный челове́к (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · pt joão-pestana (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · sco Dream Angus (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · eo sablovendisto (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · gd Dòmhnall Slaodach (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · gl Pedro Chosco (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · sv John Blund (figure who brings good sleep and dreams) · pt João Pestana (figure who brings good sleep and dreams)

wikipedia: E.T.A. Hoffmann · wikipedia: The Sandman (short story)