salesman

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English sales

Proto-Indo-European *mon-

Proto-Germanic *mann-

Proto-West Germanic *mann

Old English mann

Middle English man

Middle English -man

English -man

English salesman

From sales + -man.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

salesman (plural salesmen)

1. A man whose job it is to sell things, either in a shop / store or elsewhere.

   Coordinate term: saleswoman

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “24”, in Babbitt:

     There was an auto salesman in here yesterday that claimed you could always tell a fellow's class by the car he drove, but I says to him, 'Don't be silly,' I says; 'the wisenheimers grab a look at a fellow's nails when they want to tell if he's a tin-horn or a real gent!"'

   • 1954, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking and Currency. Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs, FHA Investigation: Hearings, page 2397:

     Would you say it was fair to describe these salesmen that were in your crews as dynamiters, or suede shoe salesmen?

Hypernyms

• salesperson
• seller
• vendor

Derived terms

• door-to-door salesman
• inside salesman
• nonsalesman
• salesmanish
• salesmanlike
• salesmanly
• salesmanship
• snake oil salesman
• suede-shoe salesman
• supersalesman
• supersalesmanship
• telesalesman
• travelling salesman
• travelling salesman problem
• unsalesmanlike

Translations

man whose job it is to sell things

• Albanian: shitës (sq) m
• American Sign Language: FlatO@InsideChesthigh-PalmDown-FlatO@InsideChesthigh-PalmDown Nod FlatO@InsideChesthigh-PalmForward-FlatO@Inside-PalmForward OpenB@SideChesthigh-OpenB@SideChesthigh OpenB@SideTrunkhigh-OpenB@SideTrunkhigh
• Arabic: بَيَّاع m (bayyāʕ), بَيَّاعَة f (bayyāʕa)
• Armenian: վաճառող (hy) (vačaṙoġ)
• Azerbaijani: satıcı (az)
• Belarusian: прадаве́ц m (pradavjéc), гандля́р m (handljár)
• Bulgarian: продава́ч m (prodaváč)
• Burmese: ကုန်ရောင်းသူ (kunraung:su), အရောင်းစာရေး (a.raung:care:), ဈေးသည် (my) (jhe:sany)
• Catalan: venedor (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 售貨員 / 售货员 (zh) (shòuhuòyuán), 推銷員 / 推销员 (zh) (tuīxiāoyuán)

• Czech: prodavač (cs) m
• Danish: sælger (da) c
• Dutch: verkoper (nl) m
• Esperanto: vendisto
• Estonian: müüja
• Finnish: myyjä (fi), myyntimies (fi)
• French: vendeur (fr) m
• Friulian: venditôr m
• Georgian: გამყიდველი (gamq̇idveli)
• German: Verkäufer (de) m
• Greek: πωλητής (el) m (politís)
• Hebrew: מוֹכֵר (he) m (mokhér), מוֹכֶרֶת f
• Hindi: विक्रेता (hi) m (vikretā), बेचनेवाला m (becnevālā)
• Hungarian: eladó (hu)
• Icelandic: sölumaður m
• Italian: venditore (it) m
• Japanese: 店員 (ja) (てんいん, ten'in), セールスマン (ja) (sērusuman), 販売員 (ja) (はんばいいん, hanbaiin), 売り手 (ja) (うりて, urite)
• Kabuverdianu: bendedor
• Kazakh: сатушы (satuwšı)
• Khmer: អាបណក (km) (ʼaapaʼnaʼkɑɑ)
• Korean: 판매원(販賣員) (ko) (panmaewon), 점원(店員) (ko) (jeomwon)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: firoşer (ku), firoşkar (ku), firoşyar (ku)

• Kyrgyz: сатуучу (ky) (satuucu)
• Lao: ພະນັກງານຂາຍ (pha nak ngān khāi)
• Latin: institor m
• Latvian: pārdevējs (lv) m
• Lithuanian: pardavėjas (lt) m
• Macedonian: продавач m (prodavač)
• Malay: jurujual (ms)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: худалдаачин (mn) (xudaldaačin)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: selger (no) m

• Pashto: بايع (ps) m (bāyé'), پلورونکی m (plorúnkay)
• Persian:

  Dari: فُروشِنْدَه (furōšinda)

  Iranian Persian: فُروشَنْدِه (forušande)

• Polish: sprzedawca (pl) m, handlarz (pl) m, akwizytor (pl) m
• Portuguese: vendedor (pt) m
• Romanian: vânzător (ro) m
• Russian: продаве́ц (ru) m (prodavéc), торго́вец (ru) m (torgóvec)
• Scottish Gaelic: fear-reic m, reiceadair m, ceannaiche m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: прода̀ва̄ч m

  Latin: prodàvāč (sh) m

• Slovak: predavač m
• Slovene: prodajalec m
• Spanish: vendedor (es) m
• Swedish: försäljare (sv) c, köpman (sv) c, handlare (sv) c
• Tajik: фурӯшанда (tg) (furüšanda)
• Thai: พนักงานขาย (pá-nák-ngaan-kǎai)
• Turkish: satıcı (tr)
• Turkmen: satyjy
• Ukrainian: продаве́ць (uk) m (prodavécʹ), торго́вець m (torhóvecʹ)
• Urdu: سیلْز مَین m (selz main)
• Uyghur: ساتقۇچى (satquchi)
• Uzbek: sotuvchi (uz)
• Vietnamese: người bán hàng
• Yiddish: פֿאַרקויפֿער m (farkoyfer)