salesman

Etymology

It is a compound from English sale + man, with the first part in the genitive form “sale’s”, like craftsman and tradesman.^[2][3][4][5] Dictionary.com describes it as “sales” plus “-man”.^[6] The noun sale is inherited from Old English sala (“a sale, act of selling”), probably from Old Norse sala (“sale”),^[2][3][7] from the Germanic root of sell.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A man whose business is selling goods: Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1523,^[8] Dictionary.com to 1515–25 and Etymonline to the 1520s,^[6][3] and the OED's first quotation is from about 1530, in Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Early on the word was used especially of a person who sold goods or produce for someone else, such as a middleman between the cattle grazier and the butcher.^[2] In the 18th century it also meant a dealer in ready-made clothes: Johnson (1755) defined it only in that sense, quoting Swift's line that poets make characters as salesmen make clothes.^[9][2] In 1699 a canting dictionary recorded it for a tout, a sense now obsolete.^[2] The commercial traveller, a salesman sent out to sell in a given area, is an American use,^[2][4] and Merriam-Webster also records a figurative salesman of ideas, one who persuades others to accept a cause or a system of thought.^[8] In American underworld slang it meant a confidence trickster (1929) and later a pimp (1949).^[10] Collins notes the feminine forms saleswoman, salesgirl and saleslady, and the gender-neutral salesperson.^[11]

Timeline

• 1523 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.^[8]
• c. 1530 – one who sells goods, in Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry.^[2]
• 1699 – a tout (obsolete).^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson: one who sells ready-made clothes.^[9]
• 1929 – American underworld slang for a confidence trickster.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A man whose job is to sell goods or services, in a shop or by visiting customers in an assigned area.^[11][8][7]
2. A travelling salesman; a commercial traveller.^[11][2]
3. A person who works to win others over to an idea, policy or cause.^[8]
4. (obsolete) A dealer in ready-made clothes.^[2][9]

Word family

• salesmanship
• supersalesman

Related words

• sale
• sell
• saleswoman
• salesperson

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins