Where does “salesperson” come from?
I need to flag an issue with this chain before writing the sentence: the chain appears corrupted or incomplete. It lists "English person," "Middle English persoun," and "Old English sæl" at the start, but then repeats "Latin persona" twice, and includes "Proto-Indo-European ser-" followed by "Latin sonus" twice—creating circular and contradictory paths.
The headword is "salesperson" but the chain traces "person," and the connections don't support a coherent etymology for either word as presented.
Could you verify the chain? I need a clear, linear sequence (oldest → newest) with accurate language names and forms to write an accurate summary sentence.
salesperson (English): A person whose job is to sell things, either in a...
Definitions
- A person whose job is to sell things, either in a...
Ancestry of “salesperson”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | Person | — |
| 2 | Middle English | persoun | person |
| 3 | Old French | persone | person; individual; rector of a parish; someone;... |
| 4 | Medieval Latin | persona | parson, person; mask; character |
| 5 | Latin | persōna | — |
| 6 | Etruscan | 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 | a mask; a masked individual, often performing in... |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | πρόσωπον | face, visage, countenance; front; mask |
| 8 | Ancient Greek | ὤψ | to the eye; in the face; eye |
| 9 | Proto-Hellenic | ókʷs | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃ókʷs | eye |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃ekʷ- | to see; eye |
Words derived from “salesperson”