Good"man (?), n. [Good + man]
1. A familiar appellation of civility, equivalent to "My friend", "Good sir", "Mister;" -- sometimes used ironically. [Obs.]
With you, goodman boy, an you please.
Shak.
2. A husband; the master of a house or family; -- often used in speaking familiarly. [Archaic]
Chaucer.
Say ye to the goodman of the house, . . . Where is the guest-chamber ?
Mark xiv. 14.
⇒ In the early colonial records of New England, the term goodman is frequently used as a title of designation, sometimes in a respectful manner, to denote a person whose first name was not known, or when it was not desired to use that name; in this use it was nearly equivalent to Mr. This use was doubtless brought with the first settlers from England.
© Webster 1913. | 
