the.com/foreman
The person who decides whether your shortcut becomes a building or a lawsuit.
means The worker put in charge of a crew or job site, responsible for directing the labor and answering for how it gets done.
from A plain English compound: 'fore' (in front, ahead — the same root that gives us 'before' and 'forecast') plus 'man.' So a foreman is literally the man out front, the one leading from the head of the line — a sense that goes back centuries in English, long before it migrated from ships and fields onto the modern construction site.
- origin
- Literally the man positioned at the front of a crew
- boxing legend
- George Foreman knocked out opponents and sold grills
- jury duty
- Foreman also leads jurors to a verdict
- clipboard power
- Holds schedules, blame, and everyone's lunch break
- medieval roots
- Term predates skyscrapers by several centuries
big tom williams — foreman on the transcontinental railroad (1869), supervised thousands of workers laying track across america
george foreman — heavyweight boxing champion who became foreman of a youth center in houston, texas after boxing career
roy hobbs's foreman — character in the natural (1952 novel), oversees the baseball team's operations under judge banner