From state +‎ -s- +‎ -man, modelled after French homme d'État.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsteɪtsmən/

• Audio (US):

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statesman (plural statesmen)

1. A man who is a leader in national or international affairs.
2. A male political leader who promotes the public good or who is recognized for probity, leadership, or the qualities necessary to govern a state.
3. (dialectal, Lake District) A man who lives on a landed estate; a small landholder.

• wealsman

• statesmanship
• stateswoman
• statesperson

• “statesman”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “statesman”, in The Century Dictionary[…], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “statesman”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈstaːtsman/

statesman

1. statesman
   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 7-9:

     and whilke we canna zei, albeit o' 'Governere,' 'Statesman,' an alike.

     and for which we have no words but of 'Governor,' 'Statesman,' &c.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 114