selectman

English

Etymology

From select +‎ -man.

Noun

selectman (plural selectmen)

1. (US) Any of a board of municipal officers elected to manage some New England towns.
   • 2008, Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems:

     Every selectman in the state of New Hampshire seems to be positive that growth in a town will lower taxes, but if you plot growth rates against tax rates, you find a scatter as random as the stars in a New Hampshire winter sky.

   • 2011, Colin Woodard, chapter 4, in American nations, New York: Penguin, →ISBN:

     The New England […] town had its own government: a group of selectmen elected by the adult male members of the church. The selectmen acted as a plural executive, while the town’s eligible voters gathered for town meetings and functioned as a miniature parliament.

Coordinate terms

• selectwoman
• selectperson, selectpeople