Orchardman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who specializes in growing and managing trees that yield fruit engages in agricultural practices related to the nurturing and harvesting of those trees
2. An individual dedicated to the cultivation and maintenance of fruit-producing trees undertakes agricultural duties for the growth and harvesting processes
3. Someone who cultivates and cares for fruit-bearing trees, focusing on their growth and fruit production

Etymology: "Orchardman" is a plain compound of "orchard" and "man", combining the older English words for a cultivated enclosure of fruit trees and for a person. "Orchard" comes from Old English "ortgeard", literally "wort-yard", where "wort" meant a plant or herb, so an orchard was originally a yard for growing cultivated plants, and only later narrowed to fruit trees. The second element, "man", is the ordinary word for a male person, and in compounds like this it simply names someone who works with or tends the thing before it. The pattern is productive in English: a "gardenman" or "fieldman" works the same way, with "man" marking an occupation. "Orchardman" therefore describes exactly what its parts say, a worker or grower of orchard fruit trees, and it has no history beyond that transparent formation.

Synonyms: farmer, grower, cultivator, harvester, planter