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saleswoman
[ seylz-woom-uhn ]
Gender Note
Word History and Origins
Origin of saleswoman1
Example Sentences
“Do you have a magnifying glass?” she asked the saleswoman behind the counter, now examining a series of bracelets and chains for markings.
“We wanted to have an unfiltered view of her, and we got one. I saw her try on watches and then when the saleswoman looked the other way, she put one in her backpack.”
“It’s a free-for-all,” says Lisamarie Monaco, an insurance saleswoman from Jacksonville, Fla. She knows a thing or two about traveling with youngsters as the mother of seven kids.
The couple met in a Los Angeles Cadillac dealership, where she was a saleswoman, in a scene dramatized in the 2014 movie “Love & Mercy.”
Ms. Huang, the saleswoman in Beijing, said that she had decided to avoid traveling home to Hubei last lunar new year because she worried about contracting and spreading the coronavirus.
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Related Words
More About Saleswoman
What does saleswoman mean?
A saleswoman is a woman whose job is to sell products or services.
The plural of saleswoman is saleswomen. A less common term for saleswoman is saleslady. The equivalent term for a man is salesman. Both salesman and saleswoman are commonly used, but salesperson and sales rep (or sales representative) are often used in their place.
A saleswoman is often said to “work in sales”—in which sales refers to the type of occupation or the division or department within a company.
A saleswoman can sell directly to customers or to other businesses or organizations. Sometimes, saleswomen sell things in person, such as at a retail store or dealership. They also commonly sell things over the phone or by communicating with people online. In the past, it was common for some salespeople to travel door-to-door to make sales to people at home, leading to the term door-to-door salesman and, less commonly, door-to-door saleswoman.
A saleswoman who has to travel as part of her job can be called a traveling saleswoman.
The word saleswoman is sometimes used in a somewhat figurative way to refer to a woman who’s skilled at persuading people, especially in a business or professional setting, as if they are selling them a product. This skill or quality can be called saleswomanship, but the term salesmanship is much more common and is often applied regardless of gender.
Example: The saleswoman told me that this was the best deal she could give me.
Where does saleswoman come from?
The first records of the word saleswoman come from around 1700. It’s formed with the ending -woman, which is used in many other terms that specify occupation, such as businesswoman and spokeswoman. This ending can be replaced with -man or the gender-neutral -person, as in salesman and salesperson.
The job of a saleswoman is to sell, and to sell they have to convince the customer to buy. For this reason, saleswomen have a reputation for sometimes being aggressive or putting pressure on the customer, especially in retail settings, like furniture or electronics stores. Also contributing to this reputation is the fact that some saleswomen are at least partly paid on commission—a percentage of sales that goes into their pay. Of course, this reputation isn’t always warranted—a lot of saleswomen genuinely want to help you find the right product.
Still, a lot of people try to avoid saleswomen when shopping due to feeling pressured. Relatedly, the term used car salesman is sometimes used in a figurative way to refer to someone considered a smooth-talking swindler. (Used car saleswoman can be used, but used car salesman is more often applied regardless of gender.)
Did you know ... ?
What are some other forms related to saleswoman?
- saleswomen (plural)
What are some synonyms for saleswoman?
What are some words that share a root or word element with saleswoman?
What are some words that often get used in discussing saleswoman?
How is saleswoman used in real life?
Saleswoman is a neutral term, but saleswomen may be viewed positively or negatively, based on a person’s experience with them.
Senior sales executive Gwen Lemke was also our associate editor for our 60-Plus section. This entrepreneur and saleswoman extraordinaire (and mother of publisher Todd Lemke) has decided to retire after working for the last 69 years. Congratulations, Gwen! https://t.co/fQP4bHGgvd pic.twitter.com/9joj2ikutO
— Omaha Magazine (@omahamagazine) July 26, 2020
im the third best saleswoman in a store of 40 employees and i only work part time
— arty (@artyintheuk) November 13, 2016
Michelle Obama is the best saleswoman I've ever seen. She could sell me a rickety old boat and I'd be throwing money.
— J (@JRWStormy) September 16, 2016
Try using saleswoman!
Which of the following terms can be used as a synonym for saleswoman?
A. sales rep
B. sales representative
C. salesperson
D. all of the above
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