wordsmann.
/ˈwəːdzmən/, U.S. /ˈwərdzmən/ = wordman n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > [noun] > sense of language > art of using words > one who
wordsman1849
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > elegance > [noun] > fitting word > one having
wordman1610
wordsman1849
wordsmith1873
1849 H. Bushnell God in Christ i. 69 What should we expect, in such a work, but a vast compilation of symbols and of forms, which to the mere wordsman, are contrary to each other?
1868 J. G. Whittier Poet. Wks. (1894) II. 282 I ask no organ's soulless breath To drone the themes of life and death, No altar candle-lit by day, No ornate wordsman's rhetoric-play.
1946 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 7 251 His education..was to perfect him as a swordsman and wordsman, but not as a workman.
1981 W. Safire in N.Y. Times Mag. 27 Apr. 18/3 Robert Burchfield, chief editor of the Oxford Dictionaries, known to wordsmen as ‘Superlex’.
1984 N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Dec. 6/2 The occasion was a gathering at the library of renowned scholars, including a babble of wordsmen, to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of Samuel Johnson.
Derivatives
ˈwordsmanship n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > [noun] > sense of language > art of using words
rhetoricc1330
wordcraft1804
wordsmanship1917
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > elegance > [noun] > fitting word > skill in use of words
command of language1781
wordmanship1882
wordsmanship1917
1917 Hamilton Literary Mag. May 380 Dr. Stryker's superior wordsmanship is everywhere apparent.
1992 N.Y. Times Mag. 16 Feb. 34/1 Arthur Hays Sulzberger..enjoyed wordsmanship in many ways and was reported to have long been chagrined at the need to buy The Herald Tribune to do a crossword.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1849