pointsman

English

Etymology

From points +‎ man.

Noun

pointsman (plural pointsmen)

1. (rail transport) A man in charge of railroad points or switches.
   • 2021 October 20, Dr Joseph Brennan, “A key part of our diverse railway heritage”, in RAIL, number 942, page 57:

     At their point of origin, constructing these boxes presented railway companies with an attractive proposition: to remove the need for pointsmen and flagmen operating at several ground-level locations around a railway site by housing one or two men in a signal structure.

Translations

a man in charge of railroad points or switches

• Bulgarian: стрелочник m (streločnik)
• Dutch: wisselwachter (nl)
• Ingrian: strelocnikka
• Macedonian: свр́тничар m (svŕtničar)
• Pannonian Rusyn: коляйопреводнїк m pers (koljajoprevodnjik)
• Polish: zwrotniczy m
• Punjabi: ਕਾਂਟੇਵਾਲਾ m (kāṇṭevālā)

References

• “pointsman”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.