Retailer

How to spell retailer

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce retailer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does retailer mean?

1. nounA person or business that sells goods directly to the public, usually in small quantities.

Retailer in a sentence

• The online retailer shipped the order within two days.

• Every major retailer on the high street cut prices for the sale.

Where does retailer come from?

Language of origin: French

The word grows from 'retail', which English took from Old French in the late 1300s. The Old French verb 'retaillier' meant literally 'to cut back' or 'to clip off', built from the prefix 're-' and 'taillier', meaning 'to cut'; the same 'taillier' lies behind English words such as 'tailor' and 'detail'. The link to cutting makes good sense: a retailer was someone who broke a large quantity into small pieces and sold those pieces off one at a time, rather than dealing in bulk. The agent ending '-er', a long-standing English suffix for a person who performs a trade, was attached to give the modern noun for a shopkeeper or selling business. The spelling trap sits in that quiet middle: writers may forget the silent ghost of 'tail' and the single 'l' before '-er', or may double the 'l' by mistake. Remembering that a retailer once 'cut' goods into retail portions keeps the 'tail' visible.

How the word is built

• re- (intensive/again)
• tail (from Old French taillier: to cut, divide)
• -er (agent or trade suffix: one who does)