hireman

English

Etymology

From Middle English hire man, from Old English hȳrmann, equivalent to hire +‎ -man.

Noun

hireman (plural hiremen)

1. (archaic, chiefly Scotland) hireling
   • 1550, Newcastle and Gateshead:

     Also it is ordered that if any hireman or apprentice . . . not lowly and gentle to his said master, and to the officers going about for to search, and doing their duty to the said searchers and officers, the said master to present all such defaults unto the searchers and stewards, that they inform the twelve sworn men of all such faults as is found ; and also if the said hireman or prentice do not their duty in working of his work as he ought for to do, and their master letting it over past and unreformed until the said occupation, shall make it be reformed and remedied for the honesty of the said company; […]

   • 1901, Eva March Tappan, Old Ballads in Prose: The Hireman Chiel, page 88:

     The maiden fair cried aloud for joy, and then the hireman chiel knew that she was true to him, and he said: — "If you love me well, stretch out your hand to me." So the maiden fair stretched out her hand to the hireman chiel in the ploughman's frock, and the baron swore a great oath and galloped away through the stagnant pool.

Anagrams

• Amrhein, Hermian, harmine