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landsman. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
landsman, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
landsman in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From land + -s- + man. In meanings 3 and 4, influenced by Yiddish לאַנדסמאַן (landsman). Compare also German Landsmann, Norwegian landsmann. Doublet of lantzman.
Noun
landsman (plural landsmen)
- A person who does not go to sea, who lacks the skills of a sailor or who is uncomfortable on ships or boats.
- Antonym: seaman
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Leg and Arm. The Pequod, of Nantucket, Meets the Samuel Enderby, of London.”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 486:So, deprived of one leg, and the strange ship of course being altogether unsupplied with the kindly invention, Ahab now found himself abjectly reduced to a clumsy landsman again; hopelessly eyeing the uncertain changeful height he could hardly hope to attain.
1883, Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi:If the landsman should wish the gang-plank moved a foot farther forward, he would probably say: “James, or William, one of you push that plank forward, please”; but put the mate in his place, and he would roar out: “Here, now, start that gang-plank for'ard! Lively, now! What're you about!..."
1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: , London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:When I returned again to life, the same uproar, the same confused and violent movements, shook and deafened me; and presently, to my other pains and distresses, there was added the sickness of an unused landsman on the sea.
- (oil and gas industry) A person who negotiates leases, contracts and other business deals between producers and landowners.
- A fellow Jew who comes from the same district or town, especially in Eastern Europe
- Someone of a similar heritage or belief system
- (obsolete, nautical) A military rank given to naval recruits
Coordinate terms
Translations
Anagrams
Swedish
Etymology
From Old Swedish lands man, from Runic Swedish lanmana, equivalent to land + -s- + man.
Noun
landsman c (feminine: landsmaninna)
- a compatriot, a countryman
Declension