Chiefly U.S. [f. FRONTIER sb. + MAN; for the second form cf. draughtsman, tradesman.] One who lives on the frontier of a country, or on the outlying districts of civilization.
1813. Sporting Mag., XLII. Aug., 209/2. A kind of leather boot or wrapper bound round the leg, somewhat in the manner of our frontier men’s leggins, and gartered on.
1814. Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, 116. There seems to prevail a rage amongst the frontiers-men, for emigration to that quarter.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xx. 111. They were all, or nearly all, natives of the Mexican border, frontiers-men—who had often closed in deadly fight with the Indian foe.
1877. W. Matthews, Ethnogr. Hidatsa, 22. The whites they had seen were mostly rude Canadian frontiersmen.
1883. B. Mitford, Zulu Country, iii. 45. A burly frontiersman … strides along in all the glory of wideawake and corduroy.
