lodesman

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English lodesman, lodesmon, lodysman (“pilot”, literally “lode's or course's man”), alteration of earlier lodeman, from Old English lādmann (“a leader, guide”), equivalent to lode (“way, course”) +‎ -s- +‎ man. Compare to lodemanage.

Noun

lodesman (plural lodesmen)

  1. (historical, nautical) A pilot; navigator.
    • 2009, Erastus C. Benedict, The American Admiralty:
      River and harbor pilotage, in English maritime affairs, is called loadmanage, from loadsman or lodesman, a kind of pilot established for the safe conduct of ships and vessels in and out of harbors, or up and down navigable rivers.
    • 2011, Anne Crawford, Yorkist Lord: John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, c. 1425 -1485:
      For much of the Middle Ages, ships had only three ranks of seamen: master, lodesman or navigator, and mariner.
    • 2014, Neil Jones, Paul Ridgway, Light Through a Lens:
      Such has always been the importance of preserving the life and cargo carried by ships that pilots (or 'lodesmen') have been employed for centuries as freelance mariners.

Derived terms

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for lodesman in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams
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