importer

Etymology

It is formed from English import + -er, the agent noun of the verb.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares Latin importātor (“one who imports goods from abroad”), found in an inscription and used figuratively in post-classical Latin.^[2] The verb comes from Latin importō (“to bring in, convey, bring in from abroad”), formed from in- (“into”) and portō (“to carry”),^[4][6] with Middle French importer as a further source in the OED.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or business that brings goods in from abroad: 1618, in a proclamation of James I on the manufacture of pins.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to 1700,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 18th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The commercial sense has been the main one from the start; a more general sense, a person or thing that brings something in from another place or context, followed in 1655, in Thomas Fuller's Church-History of Britain.^[2] The verb itself had meant "to signify" in the 15th century before it took the sense of bringing goods in from abroad in the 1540s.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined importer as one who brings in from abroad, quoting Swift.^[5] The OED now also uses it of a country that imports a commodity,^[2] as in the phrase net importer.^[3]

Timeline

• 1618 – a person or company that imports goods from abroad.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to 1700.^[4]
• 1655 – a person or thing that brings something in from another place or source.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or company that brings goods in from another country to sell them: a wine importer.^[6][2][3]
2. A country that buys a commodity from abroad.^[2]
3. A person or thing that brings something in from another place, source or context.^[2][3]

Related words

• import
• importation
• export
• exporter
• porter

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster