palfreyman

English

Etymology

From palfrey +‎ -man.

Noun

palfreyman (plural palfreymen)

1. A groom who specializes in palfreys or good quality riding horses.
   • 1911, Great Britain Public Record Office, Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, page 261:

     Grant, for life or until other order, to William de Woubourn, one Leeds Castle, of the king's palfreymen, for long service and because he is now too feeble to work, of 2d. daily towards his sustenance and 10s. for his robe and 4s. 8d. for his shoe-leather, yearly, out of the issues of the county of Nottingham.

   • 1998, Ann Hyland, The Warhorse, 1250-1600, page 22:

     His war needs were heavy. In 1330 his stable staff included 29 carters, 37 sumptermen and 92 palfreymen.

   • 1999, Carole Rawcliffe, Medicine for the Soul:

     From the early fourteenth century onwards, the hospital employed a cook and his assistant, along with an assortment of hired hands, including a laundress, a palfreyman, a boatwright, a smith and a swineherd.