Meaning & use
husbandman
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablearchaic
A man who works the land and raises crops or animals, especially in earlier centuries.
Grammar: Regular noun with an irregular plural: one husbandman, two husbandmen.
Patterns
- a humble husbandman
- husbandmen and laborers
The village husbandman rose before dawn to plow his small field.
Medieval records list each husbandman together with the acres he rented.
The poem praises the husbandman who patiently waits for the harvest.
Word forms
| plural | husbandmen |
|---|
Common combinations
- humble husbandman
- A humble husbandman lived in the cottage by the river.
- honest husbandman
- The story tells of an honest husbandman and his two sons.
- husbandman and shepherd
- The valley was home to a husbandman and a shepherd.
- medieval husbandman
- The medieval husbandman paid part of his crop to the lord.
Synonyms and how they differ
- farmer
- Farmer is the normal modern word and works for men and women, while husbandman sounds old and refers only to a man.
- peasant
- Peasant stresses low social rank and poverty, while husbandman simply names the work of farming.
- yeoman
- A yeoman was a farmer who owned his land, so he ranked above many a husbandman who only rented.
- tiller
- Tiller is a poetic word for someone who works the soil and is less concrete about the job than husbandman.
Word family
Commonly confused: husbandman or husband?
husbandman vs husband
A husband is a married man; a husbandman is an old word for a farmer, and the two meanings are unrelated today.
Practice
In a story set in the Middle Ages, what would a husbandman most likely do all day?
Choose one answer.
A husbandman is an old word for a farmer. He would work fields and animals; fighting or sailing belong to other occupations.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “husbandman”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.