What does committeemen mean?
"Committeemen" is the plural of "committeeman," denoting men who serve as members of a committee — a body appointed or elected to carry out a particular task, deliberation, or function on behalf of a larger organization. The word carries two main senses: the general sense of any man sitting on a committee, and a more specific American political sense referring to local party officials who organized voters at the ward or precinct level, a role central to the urban political machines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In modern usage the word has become less common, largely because organizations now favor gender-neutral terms such as "committee members." It remains useful in historical writing about political organization, labor movements, and civic bodies, where it conveys both the institutional role and the era in which such positions carried substantial local influence.
noun"Committeemen" is the plural of "committeeman": men who serve as members of a committee, especially one appointed for political or organizational purposes.
- A man appointed or elected to serve as a member of a committee.
- Specifically in U.S. politics, a male official of a political party responsible for organizing at the local (ward or precinct) level.
"The county's committeemen gathered to select the party's candidate for the state senate."
"The central committee's committeemen voted unanimously to endorse the incumbent mayor."
"In Chicago's old political machines, committeemen were the gatekeepers between voters and city hall."
This form is already the plural; the singular is "committeeman." Because the term is gender-specific, "committee members" is preferred in contemporary usage.
"Several long-serving committeemen retired at the end of the term."
In American machine politics, ward committeemen once held enough power to decide elections — and hand out jobs — street by street.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of committeemen
"Committeeman" combines "committee," which entered English in the early seventeenth century, with "man." The root "committee" derives from the verb "commit," which came into English from Latin "committere," meaning "to bring together, entrust, or join." A committee was thus literally a group to whom matters were committed or entrusted. The compound "committeeman" arose to denote an individual member of such a body, and its political use flourished in American party organization. Related forms include "committeewoman" and the modern gender-neutral "committeeperson."
Related word forms
How committeemen is actually used
"Committeemen" is somewhat formal and increasingly dated in tone; gender-neutral alternatives such as "committee members" are now generally preferred. The political sense is chiefly American, especially in discussions of early- and mid-20th-century urban party organizations.
Easily confused with committeemen
A "committee" is the body or group itself, while "committeemen" are the individual men who serve on it.
A commissioner holds an official public office, whereas a committeeman typically serves on a party or organizational committee without holding public office.