yeoman

Meaning

Noun

• An official providing honorable service in a royal or high noble household, ranking between a squire and a page. Especially, a yeoman of the guard, a member of a ceremonial bodyguard to the UK monarch (not to be confused with a Yeoman Warder).
• A dependable, diligent, or loyal worker or someone who does a great service.
• A former class of small freeholders who farm their own land; a commoner of good standing.
• A subordinate, deputy, aide, or assistant.
• A Yeoman Warder.
• A clerk in the US Navy, and US Coast Guard.
• In a vessel of war, the person in charge of the storeroom.
• A member of the Yeomanry Cavalry, officially chartered in 1794 originating around the 1760s.
• A member of the Imperial Yeomanry, officially created in 1890s and renamed in 1907.
• Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Cirrochroa (genus), of Asia and Australasia.

Origin

• From Middle English yoman, yeman, from Old English *ġēamann (compare Old Frisian gāman ("villager"), Middle Dutch goymann ("arbiter")), compound of ġē, ġēa (in ælġē, Sūþriġēa), from Proto-Germanic *gawją (compare West Frisian gea, goa, Dutch gouw, German Gau) + mann.