landman
(ˈlændmən)
[OE. landmann, f. land land n.1 + mann man n. Cf. MHG. lantman native, mod.G. landmann, Du. landman countryman, peasant, farmer. Cf. landsman.]
† 1. A man of a (specified or indicated) country. = countryman 1. Obs. rare.
| a 1000 Cædmon's Exod. 179 (Gr.) Feond onseᵹon laðum eaᵹan landmanna cyme. c 1000 Ordin. Dunsæte c. 6 in Schmid Gesetze 360. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. i. vii. 29 The Englishman of many other nations is least atheisticall..; but..he may fall not unlikely sometimes as any other land man into an uncouth opinion. |
2. A countryman, peasant.
(In Carlyle, after G. landmann.)
| a 1300 Cursor M. 28072 Nu sal i tell þe..Hu þu sal sceu þi scrift to preist,..Þat landmen mai sumquat lere, To scape þair scrift wit þis samplere. Ibid. 29411 Quen he [a clerk] chaunges crun or wede, And funden [es] in land mans dede. 1497 Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 60 That euere burges sal inbring certaine landmen, out duellaris..to remane within the tone. 1543 Ibid. 191 The toune is hauely murmurit be the landmen. 1825 Carlyle Schiller iii. (1845) 215 They are no philosophers or tribunes, but frank, stalwart landmen. |
3. = landsman 2. Now rare or Obs.
| 1480 Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 9, iij. M. men, lande men and maryners..arrayed for the werre. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. iii. 11 If tomorrow Our Nauie thriue, I haue an absolute hope Our Landmen will stand vp. 1664 J. Keymor Dutch Fish. 6 Thus they make their Landmen Seamen, their Seamen Fishermen, their Fishermen Mariners. 1752 Fielding Amelia iii. iv, What inspires a landman with the highest apprehension of danger gives not the least concern to a sailor. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 7) II. 129 The Distinction between Landmen and Seamen on board, which used to create Animosity, and subject the Landmen to some Hardships. 1808 G. Edwards Pract. Plan i. 7 The facility with which these convert landmen into sailors. 1846 Whately Addit. Elem. Rhet. 3 Nautical terms..it is little loss to a landman to be ignorant of. |
† 4. A man having landed property. Obs.
| 1562 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) i. 156 But kirkmennis cursit substance semis sweit Till landmen, w{supt} þat leud burd lyme are lyttit. 1670 Blount Law Dict. (1691), Landman, the Terre-tenant. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. iii. (1737) 405 A Gentleman of three Generations claims Precedency from any ordinary Land-man, who has but newly acquired his Lands. |
______________________________
Add: 5. U.S. Oil Industry. An agent employed by an oil company who researches property titles and negotiates with landowners for leases of mineral rights, land for drilling, etc.; = leaseman s.v. *lease n.3 4 b.
| [1923 Federal Reporter (U.S.) CCLXXXIX. 829 The plaintiff, through its vice president, Mr. Williams, and its lease and land man, Mr. Ford, agreed to withdraw from the association with the Allied Oil Corporation.] 1937 Ibid. 2nd Ser. XCIII. 640/1 They went to a hotel room of Mr. Davis, land man for Stearns-Streeter Company. 1962 H. Spence Portrait in Oil ii. 22 Another landman made an oral agreement to buy for $5,000, the lease on a farm adjacent to a drilling operation. 1978 Oil & Gas Jrnl. 9 Jan. 124/1 Douglas E. Masten, petroleum geologist, and P. D. Masten, landman, have opened consulting offices at Midland, Tex. 1990 Nation's Business Mar. 6/2 Since I had only a rudimentary education in the oil business, I decided to learn the industry from the bottom, with a job as a landman. |