Your man
A vague third-person reference to a man: the one being discussed, the one over there, the one we both know. The possessive 'your' is purely grammatical, not literal - 'your man' is not anybody's. The female equivalent is 'your one'.
Etymology
A calque from Irish constructions where a possessive marker carries vague-reference meaning rather than ownership. The Irish-language pattern of using a possessive to gesture (rather than to claim) translated into Hiberno-English as 'your man' and 'your one' without losing any of the original looseness. The English-language equivalent ('that man') is more pointed and less companionable. Documented in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Irish English usage.
In a sentence
Your man from the bank was on again - he won't leave it alone. - a domestic complaint
Your man, what do you call him - the one with the dog. - a name-grasping moment
Historical notes
Your man is the Hiberno-English speaker's go-to for any unnamed or vaguely-named male. It can mean the person being discussed ('your man from the council called again'), the person standing nearby ('your man over there with the cap'), or the person whose name has just escaped the speaker ('your man, what's-his-name, the brother of your woman'). The phrase does linguistic work that English does not have a single equivalent for; speakers reach for it constantly without thinking about why.
Sources
- Hickey, Raymond. Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms. Cambridge University Press, 2007. · academic
- Filppula, Markku. The Grammar of Irish English: Language in Hibernian Style. Routledge, 1999. · academic