Chapman (surname)
Chapman is a surname and perhaps an occupational surname. There is not a single agreed origin of the surname Chapman. Theories include it being a name for a business man or trader which was called in Old High German either choufman or koufman, which became the Old English surname céapmann. Other theories include a Saxon origin, as the Saxon words ceapan or cypan mean to buy or sell, however there is a similarity in this origin to the Old High German version, it once again would means a trader or business man. In addition, during the Middle Ages Chapmen or a Chapman sold chapbooks which were pamphlets intended for a wide audience.
The Oxford English Dictionary gives four meanings for Chapman. They are a man whose business was buying and selling; an itinerant dealer who travels otherwise known as a hawker or peddler; an agent in a commercial transaction, or a purchaser or customer.
It is the cognate of Kaufmann, a common German surname.
People with the surname or nickname Chapman include:
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Famous quotes containing the word chapman:
“Is there something in trade that dessicates and flattens out, that turns men into dried leaves at the age of forty? Certainly there is. It is not due to trade but to intensity of self- seeking, combined with narrowness of occupation.... Business has destroyed the very knowledge in us of all other natural forces except business.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)