WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Yeo"man
Part of Speech : n.;
Etymology : [OE. yoman, ?eman, ?oman; of uncertain origin; perhaps the first, syllable is akin to OFries. ga district, region, G. gau, OHG. gewi, gouwi, Goth. gawi. sq. root100.]
Definition : 1. A common man, or one of the commonly of the first or most respectable class; a freeholder; a man free born.

Note: A yeoman in England is considered as next in order to the gentry. The word is little used in the United States, unless as a title in law proceedings and instruments, designating occupation, and this only in particular States.

2. A servant; a retainer. [Obs.] A yeman hadde he and servants no mo. Chaucer.

3. A yeoman of the guard; also, a member of the yeomanry cavalry. [Eng.]

4. (Naut.)

Defn: An interior officer under the boatswain, gunner, or carpenters, charged with the stowage, account, and distribution of the stores. Yeoman of the guard, one of the bodyguard of the English sovereign, consisting of the hundred yeomen, armed with partisans, and habited in the costume of the sixteenth century. They are members of the royal household.

pl. Yeomen.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913