Pl. -men. [f. trade’s, gen. case of TRADE + MAN sb.1]
1. One who is skilled in and follows one of the industrial arts; an artificer, an artisan, a craftsman. Now Sc., local (esp. rural) English, and Colonial.
1597. Drayton, Heroical Epistles, Edward IV to Shores Wife, 117. The busie lawyer wrangling in his pleas,… The toyling trades-man, and the sweating Clowne.
a. 1600[?]. Robin Hood & Tanner, xxiii. ‘What tradesman art thou?’ said jolly Robin.
1625. Coke, in Commons Debates (Camden), 131. The Master of the Ordinance was auntiently a tradesman vntill 37 Henry 8, and then it was conferd on a nobleman.
1657. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 95. [His wish to be bound] apprintice unto some very good traydesman.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 110. If they be Tradesmen, as, Carpenters, Joyners, Masons, Smiths.
1738. Swift, Pol. Conversat., 27. If Things did not break or wear out, how would Tradesmen live?
1825. Jamieson, Tradesman, a name [in Scotland] restricted to a handicraftsman; all who keep shops being … called Merchants.
c. 1880. Lett. to Editor. Tradesman in Australia does not mean a shopkeeper, but the man who works at a trade, i. e. the artisan.
1899. Times, 25 Jan., 10. At the end of May a deputation of provincial tradesmen (in the Scotch sense) visited London…. The carpenters and joiners came to terms with the employers.
2. One who is engaged in trade or the sale of commodities; esp. a shopkeeper.
1601. Dent, Pathw. Heaven, 71. Couetousnesse … baneth our Gentlemen, it murthereth our Trades-men, it bewitcheth our Merchants.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law. Merch., 92. A Trades-mans shop, and a Merchants ware-house is taken to be publicke and open at the appointed times.
1655. E. Terry, Voy. E. Ind., xxvi. 41. There are very many private men … who are Merchants, or Tradesmen that are very rich.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., IV. 417. The Tradesman quits his Shop.
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Abbé Conti, 17 May. Most of the rich Tradesmen were Jews.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767), I. vii. 294. The daughters of plain tradesmen and honest mechanics.
1885. Miss Braddon, Wyllard’s Weird, I. i. 30. This would give time for the tradesmen to get away from their shops.
1906. Daily Chron., 10 Feb., 4/7. ‘Tradesman,’ which in the north is used to denote a workman who has learned a trade, while in the south it is made to apply to a man who runs a business.
Hence Tradesmanship, the quality or calling of a tradesman; transf. tradesmen collectively. Also attrib.
1817. Bentham, Parl. Reform (1818), 52. Say whether Tradesmanship honesty … is not worth all such other honesties put together.
1859. Sat. Rev., 10 Dec., 702/1. Tradesmanship in all its proprieties may stand aghast at the revelations of the inner life of a Strand shopkeeper’s family.
