THE FIRST WORD

fugleman

PRONUNCIATION:

(FYOO-guhl-muhn) 

MEANING:

noun: One who leads a group, company, or party.

ETYMOLOGY:

From German Flügelmann (flank man), from Flügel (wing) + Mann (man). A fugleman was once a soldier placed usually on a flank during drill to serve as a guide for his company. Earliest documented use: 1804.

USAGE:

"H.L. Mencken was trying single-handedly to drag American culture out of Puritanism and into the twentieth century, to act as fugleman on this side of the Atlantic for a literary and artistic renaissance comparable to the one then taking place on the other side."
Jonathan Yardley; The Sage of Baltimore; The Atlantic Monthly (New York); Dec 2002.