iron mann.
/ˈʌɪən man/, U.S. /ˈaɪ(ə)rn ˌmæn/ I. Senses relating to a person.
1.
a. A man made of or clad in iron; (in early use) esp. a man wearing armour.Frequently with admixture of sense 1b.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > armed man > man wearing armour > [noun]
helma1400
knight caligate1562
iron man1596
corslet1598
corsleteer1609
corslet-man1611
cuirassier1625
kurisee1649
cataphract1671
hoplomachist1793
1596 E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene v. i. sig. M7v She left her groome An yron man, which did on her attend Alwayes, to execute her stedfast doome. View more context for this quotation
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 iv. i. 234 Now to see you here, an yron man talking, Cheering a rowt of rebells with your drumme.
1693 S. Wesley Life our Blessed Lord iii. 103 Huge weighty Cataphracts, and Iron men With other Troops commix'd.
1736 A. Hill tr. Voltaire Alzira ii. 18 Unequally oppos'd to Iron-men: To woundless Bosoms coated o'er with Safety!
1765 Gentleman's & London Mag. Dec. 763/1 Nor that our silken petits maîtres..Could push the pike, the gauntlet wield, Like iron men on Cressy's field.
1843 tr. B. G. Niebuhr Stories from Greek Hist. 9 There came up out of the ground iron men all armed with lances and swords.
1931 Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 44/2 The Museum is a counterpart of the arsenals maintained by kings and princes in the age of iron men.
1963 Tales of Suspense No. 39. (inside front cover) Today you are destined to encounter—the invincible iron man!!
1968 T. Hughes (title) The iron man.
2003 P. M. Taylor Munitions of Mind (ed. 3) vi. 68 After his defeat at Arsuf in 1191..Saladin refused to engage the ‘iron men’ under Richard I again.
b. A man capable of great strength or endurance. In later use also spec. a powerful athlete; (North American, originally and chiefly Baseball) a player of exceptional endurance; a player (esp. a pitcher) who plays in many consecutive games.
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the world > life > the body > bodily constitution > bodily strength > [noun] > robustness > person
stalworthc1400
Ironsidea1470
stalwart1508
iron man1643
pine knot1836
iron woman1900
hard rock1922
toughie1929
tough guy1932
hard-ass1962
hardbody1980
1643 I. M. in Verses on Death B. Grenvill 6 Still 'gainst their Iron Men, and men of Steele,..Did'st [thou] hold fight from thy selfe, as from a Fort; Impregnable, untoucht?
1729 ‘C. Fell’ Lives of Saints II. 335 The seeming Insensibility of Theodotus while under the most severe Torments, which was the Reason of their calling him an Iron Man.
1789 J. Pinkerton Enq. Hist. Scotl. I. iii. xi. 384 Northern climates produce iron men.
1845 Weekly Raleigh Reg. & N. Carolina Gaz. 5 Dec. It is astonishing to see what resolution and iron men Bonaparte gathered around him.
1867 Daily National Intelligencer (Washington) 4 Sept. He [sc. an athlete] is an iron man. Probably there is no man living of his weight and proportions that can master him in a trial of muscular power and endurance.
1909 Hutchinson (Kansas) Daily News 27 July 3/3 Mr. Hunt was the big thing for the Salt Packers here Saturday, doing the iron man stunt of pitching through both games of a double header.
1944 Princeton Alumni Weekly 7 July 12/2 Bilgrav..was credited with Princeton's four league victories (an iron-man performance in the Cornell double-header and the two Penn games).
1975 E. Chappell Rising Damp Compl. Scripts (2002) ii. ii.156/1 When I was in the desert we went without food for three days. But we stood it. We were iron men.
2000 S. Carr Boys are Back (2009) 17 She came from a tradition of iron men, those back-country farmers who could break a leg on the farm and walk home.
c. A hard, unyielding, or unemotional man.
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the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [noun] > callousness or hard-heartedness > person
niggard1790
iron woman1832
knark1851
Gradgrind1855
iron man1860
Snopes1962
1860 J. G. Holland Miss Gilbert's Career xix. 334 Her father had seemed to her like an iron man—a man without a heart.
1900 Strand Mag. Mar. 313/1 He was an iron man, accustomed to instant obedience.
1992 Syracuse New Times 11 Nov. 11/1 Women often say they are attracted to a man who can show all his feelings, and turned off by so-called iron men.
2. Originally North American. A man who works with iron; an ironworker. Also: a man who works in the iron industry.
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society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > workers with specific materials > metalworker > [noun] > ironworker or blacksmith
ironsmithOE
blacksmith1248
smithy man1308
ferrerc1380
ironworkerc1450
vulcanist?1586
smug1600
Vulcan1603
fireworker1608
iron man1610
roughneck1901
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > workers with specific materials > metalworker > [noun] > ironworker or blacksmith > other types of ironworker
lorimerc1230
ironfounder1492
iron man1610
brightsmith1734
shingler1832
baller?1881
bulldog-burner1881
1610 Publ. by Counsell of Virginea touching Plantation (single sheet) Sufficient, honest and good artificers, as..Coopers, Salt-makers, Iron men for furnasse & hammer.
1649 Perfect Descr. Virginia 3 Skilfull Iron-men for the Works sent out of England.
1783 in L. Chalkley Chron. Scotch-Irish Settlement Virginia (1912) II. 410 Henry Miller, Iron Man.
1846 Times 2 Nov. 2/6 It has been feared that the miners and iron-men, in consequence of the increased demand for the staple article of the district, would demand an advance of wages.
1875 M. Collins Sweet & Twenty I. i. iv. 59 He drew strong pictures of the ironmaster's unlimited champagne and the ironman's limited beer.
1904 Northeastern Reporter 70 13/2 Quinn said..that all ironwork on the building must be done by iron men.
1978 A. Peskin Garfield xiii. 266 The iron men..were not as easily satisfied. They continued to suspect their congressman of harboring free trade sentiments.
2000 P. J. Cianciolo Informational Picture Bks. Children 150 The iron men demonstrate for the boy the numerous skills associated with the craft of creating iron products.
3. A person belonging to a mythological age of iron (see Iron Age n.1 1); a debased or degenerate person (esp. a man). Cf. iron adj. 6.
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society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > [noun] > person
degenerate1555
iron man?1617
retrograde1633
retrogressive1847
?1617 T. Campion 3rd & 4th Bk. Ayres iii. xxi. sig. E Which till their eyes ake let yron men enuy.
1619 A. Newman Pleasures Vision sig. C6 Golden baites..are sought for, when They draw like Loadstones Iron-men.
1665 T. P. in W. Killigrew Three Playes sig. A3 For just as then The Golden Age, was but the Iron Men; So to Posterity it may be told Our Age is Iron, but our Wits are Gold.
1873 Sat. Rev. 3 May 577/1 The race of heroes, between the bad brazen men and the still worse iron men.
1907 G. Murray Rise Greek Epic 78 The Iron Men are not creatures of mere idyllic badness.
1992 D. E. Stannard Amer. Holocaust (1993) v. 166 The present is located in the fifth age, the age of the race of Iron men.
II. Other senses.† 4. A kind of grey iron ore. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > minerals > ore > [noun] > metal ore > iron ore
minea1425
iron ore1587
iron mine1616
iron man1683
1683 J. Pettus tr. L. Ercker ii. i. 101 in Fleta Minor i. There breaks a small grey spissy Oar, which, after its colour, is called Iron-man [Ger. Eyssenman].
5. A machine regarded as replacing or resembling a worker in an industrial process; spec. (a) an automatic spinning mule; (b) a coal-cutting machine. Now chiefly historical.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > mining equipment > [noun] > coal-cutting machines
iron man1827
overcutter1946
plough1946
cutter-loader1948
shearer1956
trepanner1956
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture of thread or yarn > [noun] > spinning > machine
twiner1611
twistera1703
filatory?18..
iron man1827
spinner1875
1827 London Jrnl. Arts & Sci. 13 309 This machine has hence been denominated in the spinning districts of Lancashire, an ‘Iron Man’.
1835 J. Holland Hist. & Descr. Fossil Fuel, Collieries, & Coal Trade xii. 246 ‘Willy Brown's Iron Man’..was introduced into Willington Colliery about 60 years ago.
1876 E. H. Knight in First Cent. Republic ii. 65/1 The perfected mule has been called the ‘iron man’ from the wondrous skill with which it operates.
1916 J. A. B. Scherer Cotton as World Power xvi. 75 In 1791 a Manchester firm contracted for four hundred looms, but the factory was burnt to the ground, probably by laborers who thought that the ‘iron men’, as the machines were called, would take the bread out of their mouths.
1941 Cairns Post (Queensland, Austral.) 27 Mar. 1/8 The clue to the new use of these ‘iron-men’, as miners in early days called the coal-cutting machines, lies in the ingenious design of the hydraulic winch.
2009 H. Sussman Victorian Technol. ii. 49 The naming of Roberts, the inventor of the Iron Man, as a ‘modern Prometheus’ provides a self-conscious contrast to Victor Frankenstein.
6. slang. Cf. iron n.1 2c.
a. U.S. A dollar. Cf. man n.1 30.
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society > trade and finance > money > sum of money > [noun] > specific sums of money > a dollar
skin1834
rock1837
buck1856
scad1856
simoleon1881
plunk1885
clam1886
slug1887
bone1889
plunker1890
ace1900
sinker1900
Oxford1902
caser1907
iron man1907
man1910
berry1918
fish1920
smacker1920
Oxford scholar1937
loonie1987
1907 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 5 Mar. 8 There was a young man named McLean Who was two hundred ‘iron men’ to the gain.
1932 J. Dos Passos 1919 52 He still had more'n fifty iron men.
1970 E. R. Johnson God Keepers (1971) vi. 62 An ounce should bring a street pusher about two thousand iron men.
1993 S. King Nightmares & Dreamscapes 153 He owed Mr. Reggie not seven hundred, not seven thousand, but seventeen thousand iron men.
b. Originally Australian. A one-pound note; a pound.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > paper money > English banknotes > [noun] > one-pound note
poundOE
note1775
pound note1805
one-pounder1811
one1846
jim1906
Bradbury1917
Fisher1922
oncer1931
sheet1937
iron man1938
saucepan lid1951
single1961
1938 Singleton (New S. Wales) Argus 11 Apr. More than a hundred thousand ‘iron men’. Carefully invested, enough to bring in over three thousand a year.
1973 J. Leasor Host of Extras i. 16 A nut..to whom I'd sold a Bean Tourer—not the most exciting car..but what did he expect for five hundred iron men?
1974 J. Wainwright Evidence I shall Give xxviii. 141 Ten thousand iron men... We're talking bank-notes.
1981 W. Smith Men of Men 74 ‘Will some sporting gent name me a price for these fancy goods?’..‘Tenner, Lil darling. Ten iron men.’
7. Sport (originally U.S.). Usually as one word and with capital initial(s). A triathlon consisting of a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile cycle race and a full marathon. Cf. Compounds b.A proprietary name in the United Kingdom.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > athletics > [noun] > mixed events
pentathlon1603
quinquertium1603
pentathlon1899
decathlon1912
biathlon1958
tetrathlon1959
triathlon1973
heptathlon1977
iron man1979
1979 Stars & Stripes 10 Oct. 15/3 I've got two things I want to do... Then maybe I'll think about the Iron Man.
1982 Wall St. Jrnl. 15 Sept. 1/4 More than 900 ‘triathletes’, about 10% of them women, have entered the next Ironman Oct. 9.
1995 National Jan. 27/1 Simmonds did his first Ironman two years ago at the age of 36, finishing in a respectable 13 hours, 43 minutes.
2000 Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 30 July (Sport section) 19/3 I've also done a couple of ironmans and the West Highland Way race.
2010 Ultra Fit Apr. 115/2 How about the ultimate triathlon challenge—not the Ironman, but a London to Paris race, where you become your own Eurostar?
8. Sport (chiefly Australian and New Zealand). A competition held at a surf life-saving event and typically featuring legs of swimming, surf skiing, surfboarding, and sprinting; an ‘iron man’ event (see Compounds a).
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society > leisure > sport > match or competition > [noun] > series of, as public spectacle > specific
May games1531
game1636
victorial1657
natal games1728
gathering1828
Olympiad1896
Olympian Games1896
Winter Olympic Games1908
winter game1924
Winter Olympics1924
Olympics1925
spartakiad1928
Winter Olympiad1928
Summer Olympics1931
paraplegic games1953
Paralympics1954
Paralympic Games1955
Special Olympics1968
worlds1984
iron man1985
1985 Sunday Mail (Queensland) (Nexis) 13 Jan. Lyndon..was second in the surf race, third in the iron man and fourth in the board race.
1999 Dominion (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 29 Jan. 25 The ironman, which attracts the biggest names in New Zealand surf lifesaving, is one of the features of the two-day carnival.
2013 Gold Coast Bull. (Austral.) (Nexis) 25 Mar. 25 I'll probably do between four and five team events and the ironman and we'll see about a swim race and board race.
Compounds
attributive. Sport.
a. Chiefly Australian and New Zealand. Designating a competition held at a surf life-saving event and typically featuring legs of swimming, surf skiing, surfboarding, and sprinting; of or relating to such a competition.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > water sports except racing > other water sports > [adjective]
iron man1969
1969 Swag (Austral.) No. 1. 31 The Iron Man event was officially introduced into the Australian surfing calendar two years ago. Barry Rodgers has won it both times.
1988 Sun (Brisbane) 19 May 6/1 World ironman champion Trevor Hendy provided his newborn daughter with her first taste of the surf today.
1990 Kalgoorlie (W. Austral.) Miner 6 Mar. 2/3 Sunday's fun day was enjoyed by the 1500 people who turned out to participate in or watch the various sporting events, including a turf-to-surf run and iron man contest.
2012 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 28 Jan. He..comfortably won his ironman heat late in the day.
b. Originally U.S. Frequently as one word and usually with capital initial(s). Designating a triathlon consisting of a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile cycle race and a full marathon; of or relating to such a triathlon. Cf. sense 7.Ironman Triathlon is a proprietary name.The first such triathlon was held in Hawaii in 1978.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > athletics > [adjective] > mixed events
quinquertian1623
iron man1978
1978 Honolulu Advertiser 10 Feb. f1/2 The Hawaiian Iron-man Triathlon seems to be an inhumane attempt to tax the body beyond all comprehension and award the survivor—if any—with a trophy.
1983 Times 26 Feb. 22/1 The word ‘triathlon’ is the label that has been attached to the so-called ‘Iron Man contests’.
1990 South of Boston 15 Aug. 1/3 The top swimmer will receive a mountain bike... Perhaps the start of an Iron Man career?
2001 Outside Oct. 28 Meet New Mexico governor Gary Johnson: maverick Republican, avid cyclist, three-time Ironman competitor, [etc.].
2007 Independent on Sunday 10 June 6/3 A superfit pilot with 20 years' experience, he competed in the Ironman Triathlon in August 2005.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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