frontiersman

American  

[fruhn-teerz-muhn, fron-, fruhn-teerz-] / frʌnˈtɪərz mən, frɒn-, ˈfrʌn tɪərz- /

noun

plural

frontiersmen

1. a person, especially a man, who lives on the frontier, especially in sparsely settled regions.

---

frontiersman British  

/ frʌnˈtɪəz-, ˈfrʌntɪəzmən /

noun

1. (formerly) a man living on a frontier, esp in a newly pioneered territory of the US

---

Etymology

Origin of frontiersman

An Americanism dating back to 1775–85; frontier ( def. ) + 's ¹ + -man

Example Sentences

The frontiersman poet Joaquin Miller was assigned to write about a week spent on Wall Street.

From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 28, 2025

A half-century later, that encounter has become the life’s work of this former Seattle dentist turned Alaskan frontiersman.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 23, 2023

In 2016, he finally won an Oscar, after four previous nominations, for his performance as a vengeance-hungry frontiersman in “The Revenant.”

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023

In 1955, the frontiersman Davy Crockett became the most famous man in America, more than a century after his death at the Alamo.

From Slate • Aug. 31, 2023

At the time of Anna’s murder, the Osage County sheriff, who carried the bulk of responsibility for maintaining law and order in the area, was a fifty-eight-year-old, three-hundred-pound frontiersman named Harve M. Freas.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann