yeman

yeman (plural yemen)

1. Obsolete spelling of yeoman.

• Eyman, Maney, Mayen, Mayne, Meany, manye, meany, yamen

• ȝeman, ȝoman, ȝymman, yeoman, yoman
• ȝomman, ȝomone (Southern); ȝomon, ȝymmon, yemon (West Midland); ȝymanne, ȝomanne (Promptorium Parvulorum)
• ȝomane, yhoman (Northern); ȝheman, ȝowman, ȝuman, ȝyman, yhowman, yhwman (Early Scots)

First attested in c. 1300 and of uncertain origin; of the etymologies that have been suggested, the following are plausible:

• Possibly from Old English *ġēamann, from Proto-West Germanic *gawamann, variant of *gauwjamann, related to Old Frisian gāmann (“villager”), Middle Dutch goyman (“arbitrator”). Liberman's dismissal of the proposed phonological development is unwarranted; compare e.g. ġēac (“cuckoo”) < *gauk.
• A contraction of yong man; compare dialectal yeomath (“aftermath”) for a possible parallel.

See Liberman for other historic suggestions, though his proposed derivation from Old English *ǣmann, *āmann, from ǣ-, ā- (“after, without”) +‎ mann (“man”) is not only semantically unconvincing, but phonologically improbable given the consistent initial /j/ in this word (forms of yeomath without /j/ can be a post-Middle English development as in dialectal east “yeast”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈjɛːman/, /ˈjɛman/, /ˈjeːman/, /ˈjiman/
• IPA^(key): /ˈjɔːman/, /ˈjoːman/, /ˈjuman/ (with back vowel)

yeman (plural yemen)

1. A subordinate, deputy, or hireling:
   1. An attendant or retainer of a noble (ranking above a page and below a squire)
   2. An official of a noble (ranking above a groom and below a sergeant)
   3. (rare) An labourer or worker; one doing physical work.
2. A minor freeholder; an owner of a small landed estate.
3. A young man or youth; a man in his youth.

• As this word's etymology is disputed and it does not survive in modern traditional dialects, the pronunciations given have been approximated based on spellings and Early Modern English orthoepists.

• English: yeoman
• Middle Scots: ȝeman
• →⇒ Irish: gíománach
• → Middle Welsh: iemon, iwmon
  • Welsh: iemon, iyman (obsolete)

• “yēman, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “ȝeman, ȝo(w)man, ȝeoman, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• Barnhart, Robert and Steinmetz, Sol, editors (1988), “yeoman”, in The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology‎^[1], Bronxville, N.Y.: The H. W. Wilson Co., →ISBN, →OCLC, page 1253, column 1.
• Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎^[2], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 8, page 471.
• Jespersen, Otto (1909), A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎^[3], volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 3.25, page 79.
• Liberman, Anatoly (2011), “The origin of the word yeoman”, in Olga Timofeeva, Tanja Säily, editors, Words in Dictionaries and History: Essays in honour of R.W. McConchie (Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice; 14), Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 153-168