Craftsmen

How to spell craftsmen

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce craftsmen

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does craftsmen mean?

1. nounWorkers who are highly skilled at making things by hand, especially in a traditional trade.

Craftsmen in a sentence

• The cathedral was built by craftsmen who carved each stone by hand.

• Local craftsmen restored the antique furniture to its original finish.

Where does craftsmen come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the plural of craftsman, a compound built from two native Old English words. The first part, craft, comes from the Old English cræft, which originally carried a broader sense of strength, power, or might, and only later narrowed to mean practical skill or a learned trade. The second part comes from mann, the Old English word for a human being or person, which gave us man and its irregular plural men. When the two were joined to describe a skilled worker, a linking s slipped in between them, much as in tradesman or sportsman, giving the modern compound its distinctive central cluster. That joining s, sitting awkwardly between two consonant sounds, is the very spot where writers stumble, and the shift from man to men in the plural is the other small trap to remember.

How the word is built

• craft (from Old English cræft: skill, trade)
• -s- (linking/possessive joint)
• men (plural of man)