consumer

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /kənˈsjuː.mə/, US /kənˈsuː.mɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is an agent noun formed from consume and the suffix -er.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who squanders or wastes: the early 15th century in Etymonline,^[2] late Middle English in SOED, also one who destroys or uses up,^[3] 1535 in the OED.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In economics, one who uses up goods and so destroys their exchangeable value, the opposite of producer, is from 1745,^[2][4] the late 17th century in SOED.^[3] In general use, a purchaser of goods or services, a customer, is from 1897.^[4] Consumer goods is attested from 1890,^[2] and consumers' credit from 1888.^[4] In the United States a consumer price index has been calculated since 1919, abbreviated CPI by 1971.^[2] In ecology a consumer is an organism that feeds on other organisms in a food chain.^[5]

Timeline

• early 15th century – a waster.^[2]
• 1745 – in economics.^[2][4]
• 1888 – consumers' credit.^[4]
• 1890 – consumer goods.^[2]
• 1897 – a customer.^[4]
• 1919 – the consumer price index.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who buys goods or services for personal use rather than for resale or manufacture.
2. A person or thing that uses something up.
3. (ecology) An organism that feeds on other organisms or organic matter in a food chain.

Word family

• consumership
• consumerize
• nonconsumer
• postconsumer
• preconsumer
• anticonsumer
• consumerism
• consumerist

Related words

• consumption
• consume
• sumptuous

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin