Newsdealer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who sells newspapers and magazines, often at a stand or store
2. someone who distributes various forms of printed news media for public purchase
3. an individual engaged in the business of providing current event publications to customers

Etymology: "Newsdealer" is a plain compound: "news" joined to "dealer," so the word names a person who deals in news, which in practice means someone who sells newspapers. "News" comes from the Middle English "newes," the plural-looking form of "new" (as in "new things," or tidings), while "dealer" comes from the verb "deal," meaning to distribute or trade. Put together, the compound describes a trader in the daily tidings of the moment. The word is transparent in a way many English compounds are not. Its two halves keep their ordinary meanings, so the term needs no special history to explain it, and its sense has narrowed over time. The "news" in it refers to printed news, the paper itself, rather than information in general.

Synonyms: newsagent, newsvendor, newsstand operator