noun
yeoman
A historical farmer of modest social rank who cultivated personally owned land.
The yeoman owns a small farm and works the land himself.
Etymology
Yeoman developed a social sense for a freeholder below the gentry. In rural use, it identified a farmer cultivating personally owned land.
More examples
- Unlike the tenant farmer, the yeoman owned the fields he planted.
- Several yeomen brought grain from their farms to the market.
- The records list her father as a yeoman rather than a gentleman.
Forms
yeoman · yeomen
yeomanry noun — Landowning farmers considered as a social class.
Similar words
- freeholder
- Emphasizes outright land ownership, without necessarily implying farming.
- smallholder
- Emphasizes farming a small plot, which may be rented.