bankman

1) This was an earlier spelling of banksman, the occupational term linked with coal-mining, and it reflects the omission by dialect speakers of the genitive ‘s’.

The OED quotes a north-country will of 1598 in which a man was said to have served ‘… as a banckman at those pittes’ and the word occurred also in a lease of 1486 for Cortworth in south Yorkshire: 1486 ‘3 picks, one barrow-man and one bank-man’ .

dates 1486 1704 1754

Related Content Loading...

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0