subs. (old cant).—See quots. Cf. DARKMANS = night. Fr. le matois; It. specchio.
1573. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1814), 65. The LIGHTMANS, the day.
1609. DEKKER, Lanthorne and Candlelight, ‘A Canting Song.’
| If we … dup the giger of a Gentry coses ken,… | |
| And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the LIGHTMANS. |
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 39 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. LIGHTMANS, the day.
1611. MIDDLETON and DEKKER, The Roaring Girle, v. 1. Oh, I would lib all the LIGHTMANS.
1663. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, Pt. I. v. 50 (1874). LIGHTMANS, Morning or Day.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1724. E. COLES, English Dictionary. LIGHTMANS, o. (break of) day.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
