raree-show mann.
/ˈrɛːrɪʃəʊ ˌman/, U.S. /ˈrɛriˌʃoʊ ˌmæn/ Now historical.
A man who provides or exhibits a raree-show.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > optical shows > [noun] > peep-show > one in charge of
raree-show man1699
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Raree-show-men.
1740 J. Peterson Raree Show (ed. 2) ii. i. 16 Who shall we get to personate this Raree-Show-Man?
1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters iii. 329 A rary-shewman..always takes care to tell he had the honor [etc.].
1842 G. C. Munro De Montfort I. xxix. 304 Jugglers, musicians, and raree-showmen, had established themselves among the trees in the back ground.
1864 C. Knight Passages Working Life II. xiii. 269 The raree-showman is no more.
1903 A. Dobson Fanny Burney ii. 39 He was only waiting to blow the trumpet of Fame, which he forthwith proceeded to do with a stick, after the fashion of a Raree-Show-man.
1999 K. Olsen Daily Life 18th-cent. Eng. x. 155 The raree-show man would carry a box with one to four sets of eyeholes.
Derivatives
raree-ˈshowmanism n. Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1842 T. Moore Mem. (1856) VII. 311 S——l, too, upon Romanism Will sport his raree-showmanism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1699