lineman

English

Etymology

From line +‎ -man.

Noun

lineman (plural linemen)

1. A person who installs and repairs overhead cables (either power or telephone); a linesman.
   • 1962 August, G. M. Kichenside, “Resignalling for the Kent Coast electrification—Phase II”, in Modern Railways, page 126:

     In the event of a failure, by the operation of a switch signalmen at the panel boxes can set up flashing white lights on certain signalling apparatus cases spaced at approximately half-mile intervals alongside the line, in order to call the lineman. The lineman can communicate with the signalman by plugging in a hand telephone at any one of these points.

   • 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 6, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 135:

     […] or even, daring, spent the night up some pole in a lineman's tent like caterpillars, swung among a web of telephone wires, living in the very copper rigging and secular miracle of communication, untroubled by the dumb voltages flickering their miles, the night long, in the thousands of unheard messages.

2. (American football) A player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage.
3. Someone who repairs railway tracks.

Derived terms

• lineman splice

Translations

installer

• Finnish: linjamies, johtoasentaja
• Navajo: atsiniltłʼish yinaalnishí, béésh łichíiʼii nideiłtʼiʼí

playing position in football

• Finnish: linjamies

See also

• linesman

References

• “lineman”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Lemnian, melanin