dealer

Forms

dealer m (plural dealeri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English dealer, an unadapted English word.^[2][3][4][1] The English noun is formed on the verb deal (“to have dealings, to strike a bargain”), which first meant “to share out”.^[2] The verb goes back to Old English dǣlan (“to distribute, to divide”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1974, in a book on international marketing by A. Zamfir and D. Floru, in the sense of an intermediary seller or a licensed trader in securities.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word came in through the language of trade and finance: a firm or person licensed to buy and sell securities on its own account, a stockbroker, and an intermediary seller in general.^[3][5] Press quotations from the late 1980s on speak of car dealers and of banks acting as dealers on the currency market.^[6] A second sense, a seller of drugs, appears in the press of the 1990s and 2000s; slang dictionaries describe the dealer as the trafficker who sells through small street sellers.^[6][5][7] In card games it names the player who deals the cards.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1974 – first record, in A. Zamfir and D. Floru's book on international marketing.^[2]
• 1988 – Dacia car dealers in Greece, in the magazine Flacăra.^[6]
• 1996 – banks acting as dealers on the currency market, in România liberă.^[6]
• 2004 – drug dealers, some of them minors, in România liberă.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A firm or person licensed to trade in securities on its own account.^[3][8]
2. A stockbroker; an intermediary seller, as in dealer auto “car dealer”.^[3][5]
3. A seller of drugs, a drug dealer.^[5][2][7]
4. In card games, the player who deals the cards.^[3][4]

Related words

• English dealer

Usage notes

The word keeps its English spelling and is pronounced dílăr; the plural is dealeri.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. dealer
3. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 274
4. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dealer
6. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
7. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional