Also bagsman. [f. BAG sb. + MAN.]
1. One who carries a bag.
1531. Bursar’s Bk. Durh. (1844), 98. Willelmus Potter, bagman [a waged officer of the convent], per annum xiis.
2. spec. A commercial traveller, whose business it is to show samples and solicit orders on behalf of manufacturers, etc. (Somewhat depreciatory.)
1765. Goldsm., Ess., i. The bag-man … was telling a better story.
1808. J. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Peep R. Acad., Wks. 1812, V. 360. The Bag-men as they travel by.
1815. T. Peacock, Headl. Hall, 2. In later days when commercial bagsmen began to scour the country.
1865. Daily Tel., 13 Dec., 5/4. A traveller—I mean a bagman, not a tourist—arriving with his samples at a provincial town.
3. In sporting slang: A bag-fox.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. II. iv. § 5. If … wild cubs cannot be found, a bagman or two must be obtained.
