Forms: see TOWN sb.
† 1. In OE. túnman and ME. A villein; a tenant in villenage. Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 344. Furseus oncneow sona ða sawle; se wæs his tun-man ær on life.
c. 1000. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 333/22. Uillanus, tunman.
11[?]. Voc., ibid. 550/14. Uillanus, tunmon.
14[?]. Metr. Voc., ibid. 630/3. Uillicus, towneman.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 204. iij. acres liyng in longefurlange vttermost toward the lond of the towne men.
2. A man who lives in a or the town: as contrasted with a countryman, or formerly with a courtier.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, II. 41. So trouthe to telle as toune men said, Ffor on þat ȝe merkyd ȝe myssed ten schore.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 523. Thair is mony toun man, to tuggill is full teuch.
1896. N. Munro, Lost Pibroch (1902), 37. A townman would think the world slept, so great was the booming quietness.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 17 April, 1/3. You are calling upon the townman, the doctor, the lawyer, the shopkeeper, and the artizan, who has his own Local Government to pay for, to pay also for the police, the highways, and the sanitation of his country neighbours.
