Cornishman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A man who was born in Cornwall, the peninsula at the southwestern tip of England, or who lives there
2. A male native or resident of the English county of Cornwall in the far southwest of Britain
3. Someone of male sex from Cornwall, the historic region of southwest England known for its mining heritage and coastline

Etymology: Cornishman is a plain compound: the adjective "Cornish" (from the name of the Celtic-speaking region at the southwestern tip of Britain) followed by the suffix "-man", an Old English word for a person. The pattern is the same as in Englishman, Welshman or Scotsman, where a national or regional adjective combines with "man" to name a native of that place. The combination is transparent, so the interest lies in the first element. The name Cornwall goes back to the Old English "Cornwealas", meaning "the Welsh of the peninsula", with "Corn-" probably tied to the Cornish people's own Brittonic name. Cornish itself is the language of that region, and the adjective has been applied to people from the county for centuries, so a "Cornishman" is simply a person defined by place rather than by language.