ruddlemann.
/ˈrʌdlmən/, U.S. /ˈrəd(ə)lmən/ Chiefly English regional. Now historical and rare.
= raddleman n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trader > traders or dealers in specific articles > [noun] > in ruddle
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raddleman1637
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1632 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 4) iii. ii. ii. ii. 470 Besmeared like a ruddleman, a gypsy, or a chimny-sweeper.
1832 M. R. Mitford Our Village V. 50 He joined a troop of ruddle-men.
1841 Tait's Edinb. Mag. July 416/2 The donkeys..wizened and wasted forms that ruddle-men, small green-grocers, and ‘weary’ itinerant knife-grinders, belabour and overload in England.
1894 D. MacRitchie Sc. Gypsies under Stewarts ii. 16 Much might also be said on the subject of..‘ruddlemen’... Gypsies have often been associated with..those wandering vendors of ruddle.
1922 R. T. Hopkins T. Hardy's Dorset vi. 100 The strange scene where Wildeve, ‘the Rousseau of Egdon’, and the travelling ruddleman dice for Mrs Yeobright's money by the light of glowworms.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1632