One way to see it: a plain, trusted man in the middle of the order. He is nobody's lord and nobody's servant. The land is his and so is the digging; the post is his and so is the work. That middle place, trusted and hands-on, is what every later use borrows.
可以想成一個站在中間的老實人。他上面沒有主子在使喚他，他下面也沒有人替他做事。地是他的，鋤頭也是他自己拿的。位置是他的，事情也是他自己做的。這個「被信任、而且真的動手」的中間位置，就是後面每一個用法都借去用的畫面。
From the word’s history
The packet's Wiktionary etymology says the word comes from Middle English yeman and calls the origin disputed: it may come from an Old English form meaning a man of a district, or it may be a shortening of yong man, a young man. Both routes are offered as possibilities, not as settled fact.
Wiktionary 的資料說這個字來自中古英語 yeman，而且明講來源有爭議。一條線索是古英語裡「某個地區的人」。另一條線索是 yong man（年輕人）的縮短。兩條都還沒有定論，所以只能當成參考。有趣的是，兩條線索指的都不是貴族，這一點和這個字給人的中間感是合得起來的。
Wiktionary, "yeoman"
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