railway man
- noun
- UK
:
ferroviario
- Every morning, the railway man arrives early to ensure the trains are on schedule.
Examples
-
That is, the first people to fall I'll tended to be dockers or post office workers, railway men, policemen.
-
The railway men are still refusing to transport arms or anything around the country.
-
The railway man inspected the train's brakes before it departed from the station.
-
My grandfather worked as a railway man for over thirty years, maintaining the tracks and signals.
Synonyms
3
4.2
A man who works on trains or train tracks
1
4.8
A person who works for a railroad, for example on trains or helping run it
1
6.2
A male worker on a train who helps passengers and the conductor
A man who works for the railway, often on trains or tracks
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'railway' (train system) + 'man' (male person) to indicate a man associated with the railway. This Noun+man compound pattern is productive and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the intended occupational/associative meaning.
Etymology
Railway man comes from the simple image of a man who works on the railway, often wearing a uniform and fixing tracks or helping passengers. That's why it means 'a man who works for a railway company'.