[Cf. NFris. jongman lad, fellow, Du. jongmensch young man, jonkman bachelor, G. jungmann deckhand, ordinary seaman, ON. ungmenni youths.]
1. A man who is young; one in early manhood. For the vocative use, see YOUNG a. 1 b.
a. 1122. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1052. Rodberd … & Vlf … ofsloʓon & elles amyrdon maniʓe iunge men.
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 69. Ðies ȝunge mann ȝiede a-wei sari.
c. 1205. Lay., 376. A ȝung mon of þriti ȝeren.
a. 1250. Prov. Ælfred, 134, in O. E. Misc. (1872), 110. Ne scolde neuer yongmon howyen to swiþe þeih him his wyse wel ne lykie.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 18984. Yur suns and yur doghteres fre, And yur yongmen sightes se.
a. 1375. Joseph Arim., 437. Þou weore a ȝong mon in þi grete strengþe.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 59. Ȝengmen.
1486. in Surtees Misc. (1890), 47. If this slaunderous report come to the eers of some yongmen of the blode that he is of.
1591. Spenser, Virg. Gnat, 431. A rulesse rout of yongmen … lie wallowed in their blood.
1607–12. Bacon, Ess., Youth & Age (Arb.), 258. Yonge men in the Conduct … of accions embrace more then they can hold.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 278. When Young-men find themselves all of a sudden advanc’d to so great power.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xiv. Abel has not been brought up like the run of young men. Ibid. (1865), Mut. Fr., III. vii. You had better provide yourself with another situation, young man.
Comb. 1551. T. Wilson, Logic, T j b. He went in freshe apparell, yong man like.
2. With special application or connotation. a. Various uses: see quots.
Quots. 1577 and c. 1643 relate to Galway; cf. the following:—‘In 1611, the “young men” obtained a charter from the corporation, instituting them a body politic of themselves…. Their “captain” was privileged to sit next the sheriffs…. They were also exempt from paying taxes; in consideration of which, they were bound to keep watch and ward’ (Hardiman, Hist. Galway (1820), 212, note).
963–84. in Birch, Cartul. Sax., III. 366. Þonne is æt Farresheafde .xvi. weorc wurðe men, & .viii. iunge men.
1577. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 447. This indenture, made … betwixt William Halloran, yongman, and … Edmond Ffrench.
1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie, I. xxvi. (Arb.), 66. The skreeking and outcry of the young damosell [on the marriage night] feeling the first forces of her stiffe and rigorous young man.
c. 1643. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 493. The Captaine of the Youngmen.
1799. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), IV. 82. The first act of my command was to name Sidney Smith’s First Lieutenant to the death-vacancy of Captain Miller. I have placed two of his young men in Gun-boats.
1858. Phytologist, Jan., 320. The Windsor-street Young Men’s Society.
1862. C. C. Robinson, Dial. Leeds, 199. A Young Men’s Mutual Improvement, and all the rest of it, Society.
1863. B. A. Heywood, Vac. Tour Antipodes, 153. A Young Men’s Christian Association Room.
† b. A man in the service of, or in attendance upon, a person of high rank or an official: = YEOMAN 1, 1 b. Obs.
Cf. also youngerman s.v. YOUNGER a. 1 c.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. III. 207. Emperours … Þorw ȝiftes han ȝonge men to renne and to ride. [Cf. quot. 1377 s.v. YEOMAN 1.]
1382. Wyclif, Acts v. 10. The ȝonge men entrynge founden hir deed, and thei baren out, and birieden to hir hosebonde.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 793. He … seide to his ȝong men, dighteþ ȝow ȝare.
1530. Palsgr., 291/1. Yongman a servaunt, ualeton.
1541–2. Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 10 § 6. Any servantes comonly called yongemen [orig. Yeomen] or gromes.
c. A youth employed by a tradesman, etc.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 116, ¶ 11. The term of Young Man, with which I was sometimes honoured, as I carried a parcel to the door of a coach, tortured my imagination.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Scenes, i. She discovers … that Mr. Todd’s young man over the way is … taking down his master’s shutters.
1887. G. R. Sims, Mary Jane’s Mem., vi. While the grocer’s young man was waiting inside for orders.
3. A lover, a male sweetheart; a fiancé. vulgar.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 207/2. Treated to an ice by her young man—they seemed as if they were keeping company.
1887. G. R. Sims, Mary Jane’s Mem., iv. And cook she shouted ‘Murder!’ too, and asked us … to spare his life, as it was only her young man.
Hence Young-manhood, † (a) the valor befitting a young man (obs.); (b) the condition of being a young man, early manhood; Young-mannish a., resembling, pertaining to, or characteristic of a young man (chiefly in a derogatory sense); hence Young-mannishness.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secr. Secr., v. 134. Ther-as thay hath … stowtly demenet ham-Selfe in grete *yonge-man-hode.
1784. Bage, Barham Downs, I. 19. Eight of the first years of my young-man-hood.
1875. Swinburne, Lett. to E. C. Stedman, 21 Feb. One must … jump from little boyhood into young-manhood.
1887. Miss Braddon, Like & Unlike, iii. Father has talked so much of your girlish days and his *young mannish days.
1873. Furnivall, in Biogr. (1911), p. liii. The boyish romanticism or the sharp *youngmanishness of his [sc. Shakspere’s] early plays.
1914. J. M. Robertson, Elizabethan Literature, ix. 206. Over every page [of Lyly’s Euphues] is the trail of the ‘clever-young-mannishness’ that has been complained of in the early comedies of Shakespeare.
