roundmann.
/ˈraʊn(d)mən/, U.S. /ˈraʊn(d)mən/ = roundsman n. (in various senses).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to conditions > [noun] > itinerant labourer
roundsman1795
rounder1817
roundman1827
row-man1840
mud-dauber1866
stiff1899
migratory worker1915
migrant worker1923
society > trade and finance > selling > seller > [noun] > commercial traveller
rideout1752
rider1752
outrider1762
traveller1790
commercial traveller1807
bagman1808
town traveller1808
commis voyageur1825
roundman1827
drummer1828
travelling salesman1833
bag woman1845
commercial1861
fieldman1875
outride1879
roundsman1884
knight of the road1889
representative1918
sales representative1949
sales rep1959
rep1973
1827 Rep. Select Comm. Labourers Wages 23 in House of Lords Sessional Papers 1801–1833 CCXVII The first I should call the old or roundman's system; it has been the custom in this system for the overseer to send the surplus hands round alternately to the farmers, with an order to pay them a certain sum per week.
1835 Q. Jrnl. Agric. 5 No. 28. 557 It would be his policy and his interest to discard those labourers who were in constant employ upon his farm, to make room for his share of surplus roundmen.
1906 N.Y. Suppl. 99 197 Not until the Greater New York charter went into effect did the assignment of patrolmen to duty as roundmen constitute a promotion.
1999 R. Grubel in E. Furlough & C. Strikwerda Consumers against Capitalism? xi. 312 In the early years, co-op members were served by the ‘roundman’ system in which employees visited homes each morning to take orders, and then delivered them later in the day.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1827