From Middle English waccheman. By surface analysis, watch +‎ -man.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɒtʃmən/
• Hyphenation: watch‧man

• Audio (US):

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watchman (plural watchmen)

1. A man set to watch: a man who keeps guard, especially one who guards a building, or the streets of a city, by night; (loosely) any such person of any sex or gender.

   Hyponym: night watchman

   Near-synonyms: watcher, watchwoman

   • 1829, Edward Bulwer Lytton, chapter XVIII, in The Disowned‎^[1]:

     The visits of the watchman to that (then) obscure and ill-inhabited neighborhood were more regulated by his indolence than his duty; and Clarence knew that it would be in vain to listen for his cry or tarry for his assistance.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 8:

     Well, it so happened that Stine and the cook were sitting in their room one evening, mending and darning their things; it was near bedtime, for the watchman had already sung out "Ten o'clock," but somehow the darning and the sewing went on very slowly indeed[.]

   • 1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 149:

     Watchmen are stationed continuously at each end of the bridge, and the main spans are patrolled twice during the night.

   • 2004 September 5, Laura Miller, “Imagine”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 July 2021:

     In 1972, a night watchman patrolling a hotel-office complex noticed that the basement garage door had been taped open and, attributing this to the carelessness of a maintenance worker earlier that day, peeled the tape off.

   • 2010, Bob McCann, Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television, page 51:

     A black night watchman at a factory is accused of murdering a young white secretary who works at the factory, but it turns out the factory owner accidentally killed her when she refused his advances.

• → Spanish: guachimán, wachimán

• security guard