tradesman
(ˈtreɪdzmən)
Pl. -men.
[f. trade's, gen. case of trade + man n.1]
1. One who is skilled in and follows one of the industrial arts; an artificer, an artisan, a craftsman. Now Sc., local (esp. rural) English, and Austral.
| 1597 Drayton Heroical Epistles, Edward IV to Shores Wife 117 The busie lawyer wrangling in his pleas,..The toyling trades-man, and the sweating Clowne. ? a 1600 Robin Hood & Tanner xxiii, ‘What tradesman art thou?’ said jolly Robin. 1625 Coke in Commons Debates (Camden) 131 The Master of the Ordinance was auntiently a tradesman vntill 37 Henry 8, and then it was conferd on a nobleman. 1657 in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 95 [His wish to be bound] apprintice unto some very good traydes⁓man. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 110 If they be Trades⁓men, as, Carpenters, Joyners, Masons, Smiths. 1738 Swift Pol. Conversat. 27 If Things did not break or wear out, how would Tradesmen live? 1825 Jamieson, Tradesman, a name [in Scotland] restricted to a handicraftsman; all who keep shops being..called Merchants. c 1880 Let. to Editor, Tradesman in Australia does not mean a shopkeeper, but the man who works at a trade, i.e. the artisan. 1899 Times 25 Jan. 10 At the end of May a deputation of provincial tradesmen (in the Scotch sense) visited London... The carpenters and joiners came to terms with the employers. |
2. a. One who is engaged in trade or the sale of commodities; esp. a shopkeeper.
| 1601 Dent Pathw. Heaven 71 Couetousnesse..baneth our Gentlemen, it murthereth our Trades-men, it bewitcheth our Merchants. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law. Merch. 92 A Trades-mans shop, and a Merchants ware-house is taken to be publicke and open at the appointed times. 1655 E. Terry Voy. E. Ind. xxvi. 411 There are very many private men..who are Merchants, or Tradesmen that are very rich. 1695 Blackmore Pr. Arth. iv. 417 The Tradesman quits his Shop. 1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Abbé Conti 17 May, Most of the rich Tradesmen were Jews. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) I. vii. 294 The daughters of plain tradesmen and honest mechanics. 1885 M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird I. i. 30 This would give time for the tradesmen to get away from their shops. 1906 Daily Chron. 10 Feb. 4/7 ‘Tradesman’, which in the north is used to denote a workman who has learned a trade, while in the south it is made to apply to a man who runs a business. |
b. tradesmen's entrance (or tradesmen's door): a minor or side entrance to a property for use by tradesmen or workmen.
| 1892 A. W. Pinero Magistrate iii. i. 113 We're in the scullery, Guv; let's try and find the tradesmen's door. 1904 E. Nesbit Phoenix & Carpet vii. 131 At the side of the house..there is a green gate labelled ‘Tradesmen's Entrance’. 1946 ‘J. Tey’ Miss Pym Disposes xiii. 143 ‘Shouldn't you be going in by the other door?’.. ‘I do not take well to tradesmen's entrances.’ 1982 M. Hinxman Telephone Never Tells iii. 21 A well-trodden path that wound round to the rear suggested..that the tradesmen's door was a more familiar mode of entry and not only for tradesmen. |
c. tradesman's token = trade token s.v. trade n. 15 a. Usu. in pl., tradesmen's tokens. Cf. trade n. 11.
| 1660 CSP Dom. 6 Oct. (1860) 307 Proposition by Sir Wm. Parkhurst..to meet the necessity for small money, and obviate the inconvenience of tradesmen's tokens. 1757 Gentl. Mag. XXVII. ix. 498/2 The best account of the money called Tradesmen's Tokens..is to be drawn from..Mr Leake's hist. account of English money, London 1745. 1849 J. Y. Akerman Tradesmen's Tokens p. i, Notwithstanding the dictum of Pinkerton, many persons are yet found who collect Tradesmen's Tokens. 1892 J. Atkins (title) The tradesmen's tokens of the eighteenth century. |
Hence ˈtradesmanship, the quality or calling of a tradesman; transf. tradesmen collectively. Also attrib.
| 1817 Bentham Parl. Reform (1818) 52 Say whether Tradesmanship honesty..is not worth all such other honesties put together. 1859 Sat. Rev. 10 Dec. 702/1 Tradesmanship in all its proprieties may stand aghast at the revelations of the inner life of a Strand shopkeeper's family. |