[f. ENGLISH + MAN.] A man who is English by descent, birth or naturalization. The historical senses of course follow those of ENGLISH a.; in mod. use, unless otherwise determined by context (as in Englishman by descent, naturalized Englishman), the word means one born in England or of English parents.
c. 950. Laws of Æthelstan, i. prm. (Thorpe). Ic wille ðæt ʓe fedaþ ealle wæʓa an earm Engliscmon.
c. 1205. Lay., 1973. Ah Engliscemen [c. 1275 Englissemen] hit habbed awend.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 242 (Gött.). Of ingland þe nacione Er englijs men in comune.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, 33. To calle the men of the londe englisshmen.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxli. 267. Thurugh helpe and comfort of our englysshmen.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cvii. 129. Ther was no Englysshman of armes, but that had ii. or iii. prisoners.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 309. Though banish’d, yet a true-borne Englishman.
1624. Bedell, Lett., iv. 80. Many Englishmen, conuertentur ad Dominum Deum.
1701. De Foe, True-born Eng., I. 310. Englishman’s the common Name for all.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, ii. That Englishman that used to come with his master to our house.
1863. Lond. Rev., 10 Jan., 35/2. A thoroughly vulgar Englishman is as offensive an animal as the human mind can well imagine.
b. Englishman’s Foot (American): see quot.
1687. Clayton, Virginia, in Phil. Trans., XLI. 145. Our Plantain … they call the Englishman’s-foot.
1861. Mrs. Lankester, Wild Flowers, 109. Plantain … has been named, by the natives in some of our settlements, ‘the Englishman’s Foot.’
