fireman

noun
/ˈfaɪɹmən/US/ˈfaɪəmən/UK

Etymology

From fire + -man.

  1. inherited from *péh₂wr̥
  2. inherited from *fōr — “fire
  3. inherited from *fuir
  4. inherited from fȳr — “fire
  5. inherited from fyr
  6. suffixed as fireman — “fire + man

Definitions

  1. Someone (especially male) who is skilled in the work of fighting fire.

    • By February 1944 there were over two thousand women employed at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company [...]. There were also female firemen on almost every shipyard crane [...].
    • For firemen everywhere rescuing cats from trees has been as much a part of the job as tackling blazing buildings.
  2. A person (originally a man) who keeps the fire going underneath a steam boiler…

    A person (originally a man) who keeps the fire going underneath a steam boiler (originally, shoveling coal by hand), particularly on a railroad locomotive or steamship.

    • He looked around his cab at his black greasy fireman, saying 'shovel on a little more coal, and when we cross that White Oak Mountain, you can watch Old 97 roll'.
    • No grass grew under a train when the engineer let Fireman McLash take the throttle.
  3. An assistant on any locomotive, whether steam-powered or not.

  4. + 3 more definitions
    1. A relief pitcher (reflecting the figurative analogy of rescuing the situation).

    2. A safety inspector in coal mines.

    3. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for fireman. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA