Talk:boothman

additional senses

• Probably a calque of a Norse term (búðarmaðr; Icelandic búðarmaður), "boothman" here means "one who mans a booth":
  • 1994, George Johnston, Thrand of Gotu: two Icelandic sagas from the Flat Island book, page 108:

    A little later a man came running and he called urgently for Leif Ossursson, bade him go in haste to Gilli lawspeaker's booth: — Sigurd Thorlaksson ran in through the doorflap there and he wounded one of his boothmen to the death.

• This is perhaps the same sense, from a different era, an independent coining:
  • 2007, Peter Behrens, The Law of Dreams, page 186:

    He had seen the boothmen and horse dealers at fairs playing brightly colored cards, and gentlemen at Shea's with their cards, cigars, and brandies.

  • 2010, Anna Kendall, Crossing Over:

    […] an illusionist, a wrestler offering to take on all comers. Children ran among the booths, and couples strolled arm in arm. Fiddlers and drummers played, boothmen bawled out their wares, animals for sale bleated or lowed or clucked.

• - -sche (discuss) 20:07, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

RFV discussion: December 2011–March 2012

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boothman

Not in OneLook or OED. Needs a proper headword if OK. SemperBlotto 08:00, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Most ghits are mentions or surnames, but we can probably find three good cites. Should it have an "archaic" tag? Dbfirs 22:50, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Looks real, but archaic. Some mentions in lists produced for genealogy studies. [1] [2] , and [3].--Dmol 03:54, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

"Corn merchant" sense cited; "one who mans a booth" sense added; both senses cited... :) - -sche (discuss) 20:28, 21 March 2012 (UTC)