vendedor

Forms

vendedor m (plural vendedores, feminine vendedora, feminine plural vendedoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese vender + -dor.^[2][3][4] Houaiss analyses it in the same way, as the stem ⟨vended-⟩ of the participle vendido, keeping the thematic vowel ⟨-e-⟩, with the suffix -or.^[5] Wiktionary, the DLP and Porto Editora instead derive it from Latin venditor (“seller”), and the REW lists the Portuguese word among the outcomes of the Latin one.^[1][6][7][8]

The Latin noun is formed from vendō (“to sell”), which comes from vēnum (“sale”) and dō (“to give”), literally “to give for sale”.^[9][1] Related nouns are Spanish vendedor, Catalan venedor, Occitan vendedor, Italian venditore and French vendeur.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1271, a date that belongs to the adjective “selling”;^[10] Cunha gives the 13th century.^[5][11] Viterbo notes that old documents also use the word for a woman, as in Eu dita vendedor mandei fazer esta Carta “I, the said seller, had this charter made”.^[10] Galician notarial deeds of 1443 from Noia have it in the legal formula eu, o dito vendedor “I, the said seller”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word first belonged to deeds of sale, as the party who sells, against the buyer.^[12] Cardoso and Pereira translate it by Latin venditor, and Morais defines it simply as “one who sells something”.^[13][14][15] The legal sense is set out in the civil codes of Portugal and Brazil, which the old Aulete quotes.^[4] In modern use it is above all a job, the salesperson of a shop or a firm, and vendedor ambulante is a street vendor; in economics the adjective describes a market with more sellers than buyers.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 1271 – first record, as an adjective.^[5]
• 1443 – o dito vendedor in deeds from Noia.^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses it with Latin venditor.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “one who sells something”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A seller;^[2] (law) the party who transfers goods for an agreed price.^[5][2]
2. A person whose job is to sell; a salesperson, shop assistant: O vendedor mostrou-nos três modelos.^[5][2][1]
3. vendedor ambulante: a street vendor, hawker.^[5][2]

Adjective

1. That sells: a empresa vendedora.^[5][1]
2. (economics) Of a market, having more sellers than buyers; bearish.^[5][2][1]

Word family

• vendedora

Related words

• vender
• venda
• Latin venditor
• Spanish vendedor

Usage notes

Vendedor de banha da cobra, literally “seller of snake fat”, is a charlatan.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vendedor
3. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. vendedor
4. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. vendedor
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vendedor
6. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. vendedor
7. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9427
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9193
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. uenditor
10. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 398
11. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vendedor
12. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. vendedor
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vendedor
14. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vendedor
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 15
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vendedor