n.
'leader' (Modern English headsman)
PGmc Ancestor
*xaƀuđa- + *mannz
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
hǫfuðsmaðr 'chief, leader'
(ONP hǫfuðmaðr (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
OE Cognate
hēafod-mann 'chief, leader'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC4c
Late OE hēafdesmann is recorded once in the context of leaders of two hundred ships arriving from Denmark (see SPS), and the genitive compound in ME is cited by MED and OED3 from a handful of N and E texts in ME, incl. WA and AMA.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
WA *441
The MS reading at WA 441 is <heuysdman>, which is best explained as an error for *heuydsman, although *heuydman (as Skeat WA prints) is also possible.