Forms: 1 stéoresman, 2, 4 stieresman(n, 3 steores-man, -mon, (Ormin steoressmann), 3–5 steresman, 4–6 sterisman, 5–6 sterysman(n, (5 stersman, 6 stirsman), 6–7 stear(e)sman, 7 steeresman, 6– steersman. [OE. stéoresman, f. stéores- genit. of stéor STEER sb.2 + MAN sb. Cf. STEERMAN.
The word was early adopted into Irish in the form stiurusman; an example occurs in 3 Fragm. Irish Annals, 116 (early 11th c.).]
1. One who steers a boat or ship.
c. 1000. Ags. Laws, Ethelred, § 4, in Liebermann (1898), I. 222/1. Ʒyl man beo æt his æhtan bereafod, & he wite of hwilcum scipe, aʓyfe steoresman ða æhta.
a. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 43. Ðe gastliche hierdes … folʓið Noe ðane gode stieresmann.
c. 1200. Ormin, 2135. Forr all swa summ þe steoressmann Aȝȝ lokeþþ till an steorrne.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 13092. Namore þan schip or barge can [keep its course], Þere hym wanteþ a steres man.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 4728. Þe sterys man toke þe helme in hande.
1577. Bullinger, Decades (1592), 638. As a boate destitute of a stirsman, is with contrarie windes tossed to and fro.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 513. As when a Ship by skilful Stearsman wrought…, where the Wind Veres oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her Saile.
1791. W. Bartram, Trav., 108. The steersman paddles softly, and proceeds slowly along shore.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., xiii. 140. The steersman moves his wheel in the required direction.
b. fig.
a. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 43. Swa scule ða gastliche stieresmenn steren ða arche of ðe hali cherche.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xix. 259. Farwell! stersman to theym that ar sted In stormes, or in desese lyse!
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, 40. From them [the Vniuersityes] come the most skilfull stearesmen to gouerne, both the state ecclesiasticall, and ciuill.
1650. H. Brooke, Conserv. Health, 221. Their Steersman is Reason.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 48. The great merit of Buonaparte has been that of a skilful steersman.
a. 1894. Stevenson, in G. Balfour, Life, vi. (1911), 74. There stood at the wheel that unknown steersman whom we call God.
c. transf. One who drives and guides a machine.
1828. Sir H. Stewart, Planter’s Guide (ed. 2), 250. The Machiner seizes the end of the pole-rope, in order to act as Steersman [of a machine for transplanting trees].
1906. Westm. Gaz., 26 June, 5/1. The Hotchkiss … overturned at Saint Calais, but fortunately without injury to the steersman [in a motor-car race].
† 2. A ruler or governor (of a certain number of people). Obs. rare.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3417. Ilc of ðe .v. steres-men Vnder hem welden in stere tgen. Ibid., 3429.
Hence Steersmanship.
1818. Bentham, Ch. Eng., Introd. 187. It is truly edifying to observe the steersmanship displayed by the Reverend Secretary in his passage through these straits.
1840. J. W. Bowden, Life Gregory VII., II. 43. We feel ourselves unable to save, by any steersmanship, the church, which seems almost foundering before our eyes.
