Lineman

How to spell lineman

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lineman

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lineman mean?

1. nounA worker who installs and repairs telephone, electrical, or railway lines, often working at height.
2. nounIn American and Canadian football, a player positioned on the line of scrimmage, either blocking or rushing.

Lineman in a sentence

• The lineman climbed the pole to restore power after the storm.

• The coach praised his star lineman for protecting the quarterback all game.

• Every lineman on the crew wore a safety harness and insulated gloves.

• As an offensive lineman he weighed nearly three hundred pounds.

Where does lineman come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a compound of two very old parts. The first half, 'line', traces back to the Latin linea, which originally meant a thread of linen or flax and then came to mean any long, thin mark or string stretched out straight. The second half, 'man', is a native Germanic word from Old English that here works as an agent suffix, naming a person who does a particular job, just as in 'postman' or 'foreman'. The combined form arose in the nineteenth century alongside the spread of telegraph and railway networks, originally describing a worker who installed and maintained the wires and tracks that ran in long lines across the country. From there American sport borrowed it for a player stationed on the line of scrimmage. The spelling is simply the two whole words joined, so the only trap is remembering it is one closed word rather than 'line man'.

How the word is built

• line (from Latin linea: a linen thread, hence a straight mark)
• -man (Germanic agent noun, a person who works at something)