roadsmann.
/ˈrəʊdzmən/, U.S. /ˈroʊdzmən/ Now rare.
1. Originally: †a person who pilots a vessel through a road (road n. 3a) (obsolete). Later: a person who is adept at or accustomed to using roads; a driver of a vehicle.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > driving or operating a vehicle > driver or operator of vehicle > [noun] > on roads
roadsman1738
road driver1878
1738 B. Mackerell Hist. Antiq. King's-Lynn 223 An order was made, That no Roads-man should have more than 3s. 4d. for Pylotting in any Stranger's Ships from the Chapel to the Town.
1741 G. Berkeley in Lett. C'tess Suffolk (1824) II. 180 Our coachman, who is an excellent roadsman,..took a fancy to fall off his box.
1824 J. Chitty Treat. Laws Comm. & Manuf. II. iii. 46 The power of appointing pilots, roadsmen, or guides, to conduct vessels on the river Thames ‘through the North Channel, to or by Orfordness and round the Long Sand Head’.
1832 Cabinet Ann. Reg. for 1831 I. 297 Finding the snow becoming heavier, and the road less practicable, the two men unharnessed three of the horses, and, under guidance of a roadsman, proceeded onward with the mail-bags, leaving the coach behind.
1868 H. Greeley Recoll. Busy Life (1869) vii. 555 There were six of us passengers, not forgetting the driver, the best roadsman of all, whom no obstacle could daunt and no botheration disconcert.
2003 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 20 Sept. 13 Singer/guitarist..Weise used to be a literature professor,..but gave it up for the romance of life as a blues roadsman.
2. A person who builds or maintains roads (in various senses of road n.); a person in charge of roads. Now archaic or regional.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > builder > [noun] > builders or maintainers of roads
waymaker?c1475
roadman1788
road-maker1792
path master1799
roadsman?1807
Macadamite1821
macadamizer1824
road breaker1834
grader1870
asphalter1880
linesman1888
lengthman1902
highway patrol1909
?1807 ‘J. Jingle’ Remarks ix Levelling the cotocton in a day, so as to spare time and labour to the roadsmen.
1865 Daily Tel. 1 Nov. 5/3 The prisoner had shot Fougereau for the sole purpose of obtaining his situation as roadsman.
1894 Labour Commission Gloss. Roadsmen, men paid by the mine-owner for the laying down and keeping in repair the underground haulage roads.
1974 Frederick (Maryland) Post 13 May a5/3 The roadsman said no roads were closed from flooding.
1997 G. Newman & L. E. Brown Brit. in Hanoverian Age, 1714–1837 144/1 Roadsmen who cleared underground roads and passages; and..‘banksmen’ who unloaded the coal sent up from below.
2002 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 17 Dec. 6 Their own maintenance man to keep their glen neat and tidy. New roadsman Davie..will take care of parks, war memorials, cemeteries and schools in Glen Esk.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1738