Also 5–6 laye-, laieman, 6 leaman, leman. [Orig. two words: see LAY a.]
1. A man who is not a cleric; one of the laity.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), V. 289. That noo clerke scholde receyve investiture of his benefice … of the honde of a seculer lay man.
1520. Caxton’s Chron. Eng., IV. 38/2. This man of a laye man was made pope.
1548. Gest, Pr. Masse, F viij. It implieth no more one christian then another, no more ye spiritual then the leamen.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 24. Let them [the papistes] no more use this shift to say that images are lay mennes bokes.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, I. 210. A Lay-man should not intrude himself to administer the sacred functions.
1704. Nelson, Fest. & Fasts, iii. (1739), 473. Nor would the Primitive Church have forbidden Deacons … to have followed secular Employments, if they had been mere Laymen.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. vii. 85. A layman … might baptize.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 95. Of the other six commissioners three were prelates and three laymen.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., iii. (1875), 82. It is as good a rule for priest as for layman.
2. transf. A man who is an ‘outsider’ or a non-expert in relation to some particular profession, art, or branch of knowledge (esp. with reference to law and medicine).
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., Proem in Ashm. (1652), 6. This Boke is made, that Lay-men shulde it see, And Clerks alsoe … Whereby all Lay-men which putteth them in prease, To seech by Alkimy great ryches to winn May finde good Counsell.
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 240. Dry it lyghtly by the sun, and drawe out an oyll after the maner of the lay men.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 69 b. To declare and expresse to the lay men that be not learned in the law.
1866. Sat. Rev., 7 April, 403/1. No prudent layman will venture to judge of the merits of a tailor’s log.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., I. 329. Sometimes this is a simple question which an intelligent layman may answer. More frequently it is a difficult one which needs … the subtlety of the trained lawyer.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 657. The assertion so frequently made by ignorant or unscrupulous laymen that the [medical] profession has been influenced [etc.].
So Laywoman.
1529. More, Dyaloge, III. Wks. 247/1. How the scripture might without great perill … be … taken to ley men & women both.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 95. They myght lawfully be baptised in all places … by a layman or by a Laywoman.
1674. Hickman, Quinquart. Hist. (ed. 2), 140. Had he held that a Lay-man, or woman, may administer the Lord’s Supper.
1846. Maskell, Mon. Rit., I. p. ccxi. Having reference to baptism in times of necessity by laymen and laywomen.
