buyer
(ˈbaɪə(r))
Forms: 3 beger, beggere, 3–5 biere, 3–6 bier, 4 byȝer, -ar, begger, byggere, 4–5 bigger, bugger(e, byar, 5 byare, 5–7 byer, 6 buier, 6– buyer.
[f. buy v. + -er1.]
1. a. One who buys, a purchaser.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 213 Þe sullere loueð his þing dere..Ðe beger bet litel þar fore. a 1300 Cursor M. 14730 Bath best and bier vte he beft. a 1400 E.E. Gilds 359 To don trewleche þe assys to þe sellere and to þe byggere. 1480 Caxton Descr. Brit. 13 The byars and sellars that ben at london. 1577 Holinshed Chron. II. 35/1 He came here as a bier, not as a beggar. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. (1876) III. ix. 223 A market place swarming with buyers and sellers. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 99 The towns of Lombardy were active buyers of Eastern commodities. |
b. spec. One employed by a mercantile house to conduct the purchase of goods.
| 1884 Manch. Exam. 18 Sept. 5/3 He was a buyer under this firm. 1885 Ibid. 20 May 4/7 The prisoner represented himself as buyer to Messrs. Huntley and Palmer. |
† 2. = redeemer. Obs.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter xviii. [xix.] 15 Laverd..mi bier un-to blisse. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 12 Jesus Crist, bier of mankynde. |
3. buyers' market: one in which goods are plentiful and low prices favour buyers.
| 1926 Textile World 11 Dec. 91 (heading) Buyers' market. 1930 Economist 13 Dec. 1105/1 The problem..is the marketing of about 300 million bushels of Canadian grain at adequate prices in what is obviously a buyers' market. 1959 Times Rev. Industry Feb. 18/3 The Board now has to face heavy losses in fighting back on a buyers' market. |
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▸ buyer's remorse n. (also buyer remorse, buyers' remorse) orig. and chiefly U.S. a feeling of regret experienced after making a purchase, typically one regarded as unnecessary or too expensive; also in extended use.
| 1966 Manitowoc (Ohio) Herald Times 12 May t9/6 Instead of facing a disappointed salesman, they hang the concrete block of ‘*buyer's remorse’ around the BBB's neck. 1994 W. Farrell Myth of Male Power (rev. ed.) xiv. 226 Date rape can be a crime, a misunderstanding, or buyer's remorse. 2000 Book May–June 54/2 Looking at the catalog is divine... It's a lively way of teasing yourself, and you get a thrill as if you'd really bought it, but you don't have to live with buyer's remorse. |