[f. state’s genitive of STATE sb. + MAN sb., after F. homme d’état. Cf. G. staatsmann, Du. staatsman, Sw. statsman, Da. statsmand. In sense 2, a separate formation on STATE sb. 34.]
1. One who takes a leading part in the affairs of a state or body politic; esp. one who is skilled in the management of public affairs.
1592. No-body & Someb., A 3 b. Your words are dangerous, good honest subiect, Old reuerent states-man, faithful seruitor.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., II. vi. For that were to affirme, that a man writing of Nero, should meane all Emperours: or speaking of Machiauel, comprehend all States-men.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 222. A gentlewoman … saide to a secular priest … if you once become statesmen, and haue dealings with the Lords of the Counsell … then I haue done with you.
1638. Diary of Ld. Warriston (S.H.S.), 295. Thou prayed earnestly for the Lords direction … about … the hol busines to be trusted to the staitsmen.
a. 1651. Fuller, Worthies, Gen., vi. (1662), 16. The word Statesmen is of great Latitude, sometimes signifying such who are able to manage Offices of State, though never actually called thereunto.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., I. 550. He … in the course of one revolving Moon, Was Chymist, Fidler, States-man, and Buffoon.
c. 1730. Ramsay, Some of the Contents, iv. Lethington the statisman courts the Nine.
1774. Goldsm., Retal., 33. Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit.
1839. Lytton, Richelieu, I. ii. 213. Where the lion’s skin fell short, he eked it Out with the fox’s! A great statesman, Joseph, That same Lysander.
1891. Times, 9 Dec., 5/1. His [Lord Dufferin’s] wide and varied training had made him not a politician but a statesman able to take Imperial views.
1912. J. H. Rose, in Eng. Hist. Rev., Oct., 702. The optimism which was the glory of Pitt as a man, but not seldom his weakness as a statesman.
attrib. 1728. Swift, Dial. Mad Mullinix & Timothy, 17. An able statesman-bishop.
1852. Tennyson, Ode Wellington, 25. The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute.
1906. E. G. Sandford, Mem. Abp. Temple, I. 260. He is also the greatest of the statesmen-bishops of Exeter.
b. humorously.
1718. Freethinker, No. 8 (1733), I. 31. Numbers, who were present at his Tryal and Execution (not excepting our News-Writers and Garret-Statesmen) have not been able to agree about him.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 223. Where village statesmen talked with looks profound, And news much older than their ale went round.
2. dial. (See quots.) Cf. ESTATESMAN.
A doubtful instance of this sense, much earlier than our quots., is found in a letter dated Oxford 16 July 1695 from James Fleming to his brother Robert Fleming (‘att Rydall’), which begins ‘Quondam Staits Man,’ and concludes ‘I am Your affectionate Statets Man.’
1787. W. H. Marshall, Norfolk, II. 389. Statesmen. Yeomen; small owners.
1794. A. Pringle, Agric. Westmorland, 30. The great number of small land-holders, or statesmen above-mentioned … doing the work upon their own estates, with their own hands and those of their families.
1794. T. Brown, Agric. Derby, 14. The smaller landowners, provincially statesmen.
1813. Mary Leadbeater, Ann. Ballitore (1862), 339. A statesman, which means in Cumberland phrase one who owns the fee-simple of his land, but works on it himself.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Statesman, the proprietor of an estate.
1827. Sporting Mag., XXI. 27. What in this part of the world [Durham] is called a Statesman—Anglicè, a Yeoman.
1866. Brogden, Prov. Lincs.
1890. Leeds Mercury, 21 Feb. At Westmoreland Assizes … yesterday … John Metcalfe, the son of a farmer and ‘statesman’ residing at Longmarton, was charged with [etc.].
