Etymologically
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insider

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:50. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • US: /ɪnˈsaɪdɚ/, /ˈɪnsaɪdɚ/[1]

Etymology

It was formed in English from inside and the agent suffix -er.[2][3][4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person within an organization or group, and so one who has special information: 1848, in W. Armstrong's Stocks,[2][7][4] originally in reference to the stock markets.[3] The Shorter Oxford dates an earlier sense, a passenger travelling inside a coach, to the early 19th century,[5] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1820–30.[6]

Semantic evolution

The coach-passenger sense, recorded by the OED from 1854 to 1892, died out with stagecoach travel.[2][5] In American thieves' slang an insider was a pocket or pocketbook, from 1846.[2][7] The main sense, a member of a group with access to its secrets, kept its link with finance: an insider in American securities law is an officer or director of a company, or a large shareholder, whose trading in its shares is regulated.[4] The compounds insider dealing and insider trading name the illegal use of such knowledge to trade shares.[8][5] In Australian slang the word has meant a secret informant within an institution such as the police.[9]

Timeline

  • 1846 – (US slang) a pocket or pocketbook.[2]
  • 1848 – a member of a group, one with special information.[2][4]
  • 1854 – an inside passenger in a coach.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person who belongs to a group or organization, especially one with access to its confidential information: According to an industry insider, the merger will be announced next week.
  2. (finance) An officer, director or major shareholder of a company, whose dealings in its shares are restricted by law.
  3. (historical) A passenger who travelled inside a coach.

Word family

  • insider trading

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  8. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com