Salesladies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Referring to female employees engaged in the sale of goods or services
2. designating women who assist customers and promote products in retail environments
3. representing those who specialize in direct sales while interacting with clients and managing transactions

Etymology: "Salesladies" is simply the plural of "saleslady," a compound formed from "sales" and "lady." The first element is the plural of "sale," a noun meaning the exchange of goods for money, and the second is the familiar word for a woman. Put together, the pair names a woman whose job is selling, the feminine counterpart of "salesman." The interest lies in the second half. "Lady" once carried a social rank, a woman of gentle birth, and it still does in phrases like "ladies and gentlemen." Attaching it to a shop job is a deliberate polite label, borrowing the prestige of the word to describe paid work done by women. The compound follows the same pattern as older gendered job titles, in which "-man" and "-lady" were attached to occupations to mark the worker's sex.

Synonyms: saleswomen, salespeople, sellers, merchants, vendors