whaleman

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical: a man employed in whaling, especially a crew member aboard a whaling ship; loosely, any whaler

   The veteran whaleman could read the sea from the masthead.

2. 2
   noun

   historical: a ship engaged in whaling

   The harbor register listed the vessel as a whaleman bound for Arctic waters.

A compound of whale and man, recorded in American English from the seventeenth century. It primarily named a man working in the whale fishery; the rarer ship sense arose by applying the occupation's name to the vessel and its crew.

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