tallyman
(ˈtælɪmən)
[f. tally n.1 + man.]
1. a. One who carries on a tally-trade, or supplies goods on credit, to be paid for by instalments.
| 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iv. xi. 242 Brewers, Clerks, Bakers, and all Tally-men. 1678 Four for Penny in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park) IV. 148 The unconscionable Tally-man..lets them have ten-shillings-worth of sorry commodities,..on security given to pay him twenty shillings by twelve-pence a week. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Tally-men, Brokers that let out Cloths at moderate Rates to wear per Week, Month, or Year. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 380/2 The pedlar tally⁓man is a hawker who supplies his customers with goods, receiving payment by weekly instalments, and derives his name from the tally or score he keeps with his customers. |
b. (See quot.)
| 1889 Academy 29 June 440/1 In the tailoring trade the worst paid work is that of the ‘tallyman’, who takes orders direct from the actual wearer without the intervention of any contractor. |
2. One who tallies, or keeps account of, anything; spec. a clerk who tallies or checks a cargo in loading or discharging.
| 1857 Spirit of Times 23 May 190/3 The tallymen were: Olympic, E. W. Cody; Bay State, W. W. Bragg, jr. 1867 ‘T. Lackland’ Homespun ii. 155 It may be the vote is very close; in that case the outside counters and tall⁓ymen are as much in the dark as the rest. 1888 Roosevelt in Century Mag. Apr. 862/1 With the voice of a stentor the tally-man shouts out the number and sex of each calf. 1889 Doyle Micah Clarke 190, I reckon them to be..mayhap five thousand two hundred foot. I have been thought a good tally-man on such occasions. 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. ix, I'm tally-man for the schooner. |
3. One who ‘lives tally’ with a woman. slang.
| 1876 J. Read They all do It (song) 3 Mrs Brown says it's a sin, that Mrs Smith drinks gin And harbours tally⁓men from day to day. 1890 N. & Q. 7th Ser. X. 297/1 The terms tally-man and tally-woman, indicating a man and woman living together without marriage, are used in mining districts. |
¶ 4. Erroneously for talesman. Obs.
| 1682 Enq. Elect. Sheriffs 10 A company of Mercenary fellows, that used to serve as Tallymen in Guild-hall for their Groats a Cause; who..would, to recover their Four⁓pence a Trial, sell the Charter and all the Priviledges of this honourable Corporation. |
Hence ˈtallymanning, ˈtallymanship (nonce-wds.), the business or occupation of a tallyman.
| 1844 J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. xxxiv, The nature and objects of tallymanship. Ibid., He talked of nothing but tally-maning. |