Purchaser

How to spell purchaser

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce purchaser

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does purchaser mean?

1. nounA person or organisation that buys something, especially property, goods, or shares.

Purchaser in a sentence

• The purchaser paid the deposit before signing the contract.

• Each purchaser of the new model received a free service plan.

Where does purchaser come from?

Language of origin: French

The word descends from the Old French verb porchacier, which meant to seek out, to pursue, or to strive to obtain something, and is built from por- (forth, ultimately from Latin pro) joined to chacier (to chase or hunt, from Late Latin captiare, 'to try to seize'). When it entered Middle English in the 1200s as 'purchasen', it originally carried the broader sense of acquiring or gaining something by any effort, not merely by paying money. Over time the meaning narrowed to the modern idea of buying, and the agent noun 'purchaser', one who buys, followed naturally with the everyday English -er ending. The same captiare root sits inside 'chase', 'catch', and 'capture', which is a useful reminder that to purchase once meant to chase a thing down. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle, where the schwa hides the 'a' in -chas- and the ending is a plain -er rather than the more elaborate forms found in legal vocabulary.

How the word is built

• pur- (forth, from Latin pro)
• chase (to pursue, from Latin captiare 'to try to seize')
• -er (agent: one who does)