Dealer

How to spell dealer

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dealer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dealer mean?

1. nounA person or business that buys and sells particular goods.
2. nounThe person who distributes the cards in a card game.

Dealer in a sentence

• The car dealer offered a generous trade-in on her old hatchback.

• The dealer shuffled the deck and handed two cards to each player.

• An antique dealer valued the clock at several hundred pounds.

• At the casino table, the dealer flipped the next card face up.

Where does dealer come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb dǣlan, meaning 'to divide', 'to share out', or 'to distribute'. That verb came from a common Germanic root tied to the idea of a part or portion, the same notion that survives in the noun 'deal' meaning a quantity or share. Over the centuries the sense of handing out portions broadened into the commercial idea of distributing goods in exchange for money, so a 'dealer' became someone who trades. The agent suffix -er, also of Germanic origin, simply marks the person who performs the action, exactly as 'baker' marks one who bakes. The card-game sense, the person who deals out the cards, preserves the older literal meaning of dividing and distributing rather than buying and selling.

How the word is built

• deal (to trade, distribute, or hand out)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)