▪ I. † sale, n.1 Obs.
Forms: 1 sæl, sal-, 4–7 sale, 5 sall, saile, 5–6 saill, sayll.
[OE. sæl (pl. salu) str. n., = OHG., MHG. sal (G. saal):—OTeut. *saloz-, orig. an -es, -os stem (cf. OE. salor). Romanic adoptions of the Teut. word are F. salle, Pr., It., Sp. sala: see sale n.4 and salle.
The form *saliz- of the OTeut. stem is represented by OE. sel, sele hall (appearing as the second element in levesel), OS. seli, OHG. sali, seli, ON. salr, which have become masculine i stems.]
A hall or spacious chamber; a king's or noble's lodging, palace, castle; occas. a tent.
In ME. alliterative poetry in sale is a frequent tag.
| Beowulf 2075 (Gr.) Gæst yrre cwom, eatol æfengrom user neosan, ðær we ᵹesunde sæl weardodon. a 1000 Riddles liii. 2 (Gr.) Ic seah ræpingas in ræced ferᵹan under hrof sales hearde tweᵹen. a 1300 K. Horn 1187 (Cambr. MS.), Wyn for to schenche, After mete in sale. c 1330 Amis & Amil. 444 And worthliest in ich a wede, And semliest in sale. a 1400–50 Alexander 502 Þe king was sett in his sale with septer in hand. Ibid. 4016 Þan sett he sales vp of silke & sacrifece makis. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 10 Kele hit with a litelle ale, And set hit downe to serve in sale. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 1150 The seymly souerane of the sail. 1470–85 Malory Arthur xvii. xvi. 713 Ryghte soo as they sat at her dyner in the chyef sale. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. iv. 45 Thair stud ane gret tempill, or saill riall. 1522 World & Child A j b, My selfe semely in sale I sende with you to be. |
b. fig.| 14.. in Tundale's Vis. (1843) 158 A mey hym harbered yn hur hall, Scho socourd hym sotht[l]y yn hur sale. |
▪ II. sale, n.2 (
seɪl)
Also 5
saale,
sayll, 5–6
saill, 7
saile, 7–8
sail.
[late OE. sala, prob. a. ON. sala wk. fem. (ON. had also sal neut.) = OHG. sala, MHG. sale, sal str. fem., f. root sal- of *saljan to sell.] 1. a. The action or an act of selling or making over to another for a price; the exchange of a commodity for money or other valuable consideration. Also, with qualification: (Ready, slow, etc.) disposal of goods for money; opportunity of selling.
bill of sale: see
bill n.3 10.
bargain and sale (Law): see
bargain n. 6.
| c 1050 Suppl. ælfric's Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 180 Distractio, ceap. Uenditio, sala. a 1300 Cursor M. 19239 ‘Sai me’, he said, ‘Ananias, Qui has þou tempted sathanas, To mak sli lesing o þi sale?’ c 1400 Rule St. Benet (Prose) 37 Better chepe sal ye selle þan þe men of þe werld dose, þat god may be payde of yure sale. 1411 E.E. Wills (1882) 19 Þ' forseyd sale of my londes and tenementes. a 1450 Myrc Festial 79 When he [sc. Iudas Skaryot] segh þat Crist was demed to þe deth by hys sale. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 245 Thow sall haue for thy Fewaill, For my sake, the better saill. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 26 In the cytie of Panchi there is great sale of silke. 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. xlii. 97 He was told what ill sales he shoulde finde there of such Merchaundize as he had brought. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 138 Thy sale of Offices and Townes in France. 1611 Bible Lev. xxv. 50 The price of his sale shalbe according vnto the number of yeeres. 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. To Rdr. (1708) A v b, Permit it..to hang in View at..some such eminent Place of Sale. 1727 Gay Begg. Op. i. vi, They are of sure sale from our warehouse at Redriff among the seamen. 1786 Chamb. Cycl. I. Pref. 4 The extensive sail of this edition. 1836 W. Irving Astoria III. 231 The terms of sale were lowered by him to the standard fixed by Mr. Stuart. 1837 Channing Addr. Temperance 32 After these remarks, it will follow, that we should discourage the sale of ardent spirits. |
b. spec. A putting up of goods to be sold publicly; a public auction. See also
port-sale.
| 1673 Temple Misc. (1680) 136 Both those that won the Plate, and those which are thus sold, ought immediately to be marked so as they may never return a second time, either to the Race or to the Sale. 1700 [see candle n. 5 d]. 1718 Free-thinker No. 108 ¶1 On Thursday next..will begin another Publick Sale by Inch of Candle. 1753 News, Boys, News! (Oxf. Jrnl.) 11 Apr., On Saturday, the 14th Instant,..will be held at the Town-Hall in this City, a Sale of great Part of the Goods..belonging to the..Old Interest of this County. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset II. lxiii. 205 He should pull down the bills advertising the sale of his effects. 1888 A. S. Swan Doris Cheyne viii. 128 An auction sale..for behoof of the creditors of Robert Cheyne. |
c. A special disposal of shop goods at rates lower than those usually charged in order to get rid of them rapidly,
e.g. at the end of a ‘season’.
| 1866 Chambers's Jrnl. 30 June 402/2 (Advt.), Enormous and incredible sale.., for ten days only!!! 1875 L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) 124 We..found a vague little shop where a sale was going on and everything was too ridiculously cheap. We bought some little silk scarves for a penny three farthings each. 1880 [see clearance sale s.v. clearance 10]. 1888 Daily News 10 Jan., The low prices at the stock⁓taking sales. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 11 Jan. 3/2 Wait till you see my pretty new sale-frock. 1900 Ibid. 4 Jan. 3/2 Sale-time, when everything at the shops, from a collar to a costume, is reduced to low prices. |
d. Bookselling. The ordinary trade rate.
| 1900 What will it Cost? 48 [Trade phrases] Sale, 30% discount off published price. |
2. Phrases.
a. to sale = ‘for sale’ (see 2 e). Now only in
to put up to sale, formerly
† to set to sale (often
fig.; in
quot. 1576
app. to abandon),
expose, etc. to sale.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 393 Welle niȝ alle her blessyngis ben sett to sale and to prise. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 297 The Ston he profreth to the sale. a 1400 Octouian 1909 And chepede me that chyld to sale, For syxty florencys all be tale. 1543–4 Act 35 Hen. VIII, c. 8 Such persons as brew for theyr owne prouision, and not to sale. 1576 Gascoigne Philomene (Arb.) 104 But Progne (now in priuie place) Set silence al to sale. 1592 Timme Ten Eng. Lepers D 3 b, Whereby they have set to sale for money Christ himselfe. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. 7 A strong presumption that his modesty set there to sale in the frontispice, is not much addicted to blush. 1649 ― Eikon. viii. 66 She pawn'd and set to saile the Crown-Jewels. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 15 Fair piazza's,..where the Merchants..expose to sale their drugs. 1670 Dryden Conq. Granada v. ii, My price!—Why, king, you do not think you deal With one who sets his services to sale? 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 58 Those who set themselves, their trusts, and their country, to sale. 1810 Act 50 Geo. III, c. 41 §6 Every Hawker, Pedlar, Petty Chapman,..carrying to sell, or exposing to Sale, any Goods. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. ii. xxv. III. 494 The most considerable offices in church and state were put up to sale. |
† b. to make sale (of): to sell.
Obs.| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iv. ix. (1869) 180 Which if men made of you saale, mihte no man livinge overbigge yow. 1463 in Bury Wills (Camden) 26, I wille..the Sexteyn of Bury and the Priour of Dusgylde..make a sale of myn seid hefd place. 1552 Huloet, Make sale of vyle thynges and trifles, agitor. 1557 W. Towrson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 114 When God should sende vs to any place where we might make sale. 1616 R. C. Times' Whistle iv. 1441 Thou mayst make sale of it to whom thou list. |
c. to set on (or † a) sale = ‘to set to sale’ (see 2 a);
(to be) on sale or
† upon sale = ‘for sale’ (see 2 e).
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 63 Here is a tale, For honestie, meete to set the diuell on sale. 1556 Olde Antichrist 72 They bestowe not only benefices..but also set a sale..the holy sacred gyftes of the holy Goost. 1634 Documents agst. Prynne (Camden) 59 How those bookes have been dispersed by them upon sale or otherwise. 1793 Cowper Let. to Lady Hesketh 30 June, If it is out of print, it is no longer upon sale. 1835 Southey Cowper's Wks. I. Pref. 6 A book which has been upon sale ever since it was published, twelve years ago. 1901 Times 16 Dec. 8/6 The Times is on Sale for 3d. per Copy at all railway bookstalls in England and Wales. |
† d. of sale: that is to be sold; vendible, venal.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 240 To things of sale, a sellers praise belongs. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. x. §8 (1891) 141 As to the confections of sale which are in the shops. 1608 Shakes. Per. iv. vi. 84 The house you dwell in proclaims you to be a creature of sale. |
e. for sale: used adjectively,
= intended to be sold; used
advb.,
= with a view to selling.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. i. iv. 92 The other is not a thing for sale. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. iii. §28. 124 Then they draw them [sc. pots] for Sale, which is chiefly to the poor Crate⁓men. 1808 Times 24 Feb., Feathers and Quills for Sale. 1815 Scott Guy M. vii, They..sometimes had good pointers for sale. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home I. 257 We went into a bookseller's shop to inquire if he had any description of Boston for sale. |
f. sale or (formerly and) return: see
quot. 1838. Freq.
attrib.| 1795 T. Peake Cases Nisi Prius 56 Two questions were made, first on the sale and return. Ibid. marg., If goods are delivered on the terms of sale or return. 1838 Bell Dict. Law Scot., Sale and return is a contract, by which goods are delivered by a wholesale dealer to a retailer, to be paid for at a certain rate, if sold again by the retailer; and if not sold, to be returned to the vendor. 1897 [see return n. 15]. 1952 E. Coxhead Play Toward iv. 100 The tickets..were distributed on a sale-or-return basis to every child in the school. 1954 L. Durrell Let. in Spirit of Place (1969) 122 The local bookseller..has been pestering me to help him re-arrange his shop... Is there any sale or return system? 1973 Times 17 Apr. 23/2 A clause forcing direct-sales firms to offer their goods on a ‘sale or return’ basis. 1978 S. Hodges Gollancz vii. 154 Reg Dignum, the London traveller, persuaded Victor to let him sell it [sc. Guilty Men] ‘on sale or return’, a practice which the firm normally never agreed to. |
g. sale of work, a sale of articles that have been made by members of an association, congregation, or the like, held on behalf of some charitable, religious, or political object. Also, a commercial sale of handiwork.
| 1859 in F. K. Prochaska Women & Philanthr. 19th-c. Eng. (1980) 258 (title) Second annual report of the association for the sale of work by ladies of limited means. 1873 Young Englishwoman May 258/1 Can the Editor inform M.A.B. of any repository where needle or network by distressed gentlewomen is removed and sold for their benefit? (New Society for Sale of Work, North Audley Street W). 1890 New Road Chapel Monthly Visitor Feb. 18b/1 Sale of work and mothers' meetings. 1905 Grand Mag. June 810 Ladies..are informed that..a shop or gallery for the sale of work is shortly to be opened. 1917 F. Klickmann Between Larch-Woods & Weir ii. 21 The vermilion satin cushion embroidered with yellow eschscholtzias, that had lain in a trunk in the attic since the last Sale of Work but two. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake (1964) 446 'Tis post purification we will, sales of work and social service, completing our Abelite union by the adoptation of fosterlings. 1973 A. Behrend Samarai Affair iv. 54 A ride round the farm, a coffee morning or a Conservative sale of work. 1976 M. Hinxman End of Good Woman vii. 99 The success of the last sale of work. |
h. sale and lease-back: see
lease-back.
3. a. attrib. and
Comb., as
sale catalogue,
sale-factor,
sale-goer,
sale-market,
sale-room,
† sale-shop;
sale-block, a block on which slaves are exposed for sale;
sale-boat, a boat that conveys fish from the fishing ground to market;
sale day, (
a) the day on which a sale is held; (
b)
Austral. and
N.Z., a market-day;
sale-leaseback = sale and lease-back (
lease-back);
† saleman [
cf. OHG. salaman,
MHG. sal(e)man],
= salesman;
sale note U.S. (see
quot.);
† sale-piece, ? the sample that attracts purchasers (in
quots. fig.);
sale ring, the ring of buyers formed round an auctioneer at a sale;
† sale-worth,
-worthy adjs., saleable;
sale-yard Austral. and
N.Z., an enclosure in which livestock is sold.
| 1887 J. C. Harris Free Joe, etc. (1888) 54 The prisoner was made to stand on the *sale-block so that all might have a fair view of him. |
| 1840 R. Bremner Excurs. in Denmark, etc. II. 389 They [fish] are recaptured at dawn to be again imprisoned on the *sale-boats. |
| 1792 J. Lackington Mem. First 45 Yrs. xxxi. 329, I soon after this proposed printing a *sale catalogue. 1852 Fraser's Mag. June 723/2 When he [sc. a wholesale bookseller] subscribes a book, or issues a sale catalogue. 1910 Quaritch's Catal. No. 286 (title) Sale-Catalogue of the library of David Garrick. |
| 1840 Spirit of Times 25 Apr. 90/2 *Sale days. 1898 Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Mar. 31/1 Tuesday was sale-day. Monday afternoon was devoted to the yarding of cattle and the yarding and drafting of innumerable sheep. 1937 Burlington Mag. Nov. p. xix/1 Let us hope..that this game..will end on the sale-day. 1948 N. Scanlan Rusty Road i. 12 Thursday was Sale Day..market day, they would call it in England, but there was no market in these small New Zealand towns. |
| 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1879) II. 829/2 Nor would he trust to the common customs of *sale-factors, auctioneers [etc.]. |
| 1927 Daily Express 4 July 3/3 *Sale-goers are advised to remember the date. 1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 1 Aug. 5/3 Private placement of mortgages, joint ventures, sale-leasebacks on income properties and land, [etc.]. 1978 Detroit Free Press 5 Mar. b1/2 The sale-leaseback arrangement, which enables the farmer to raise money for new equipment despite low farm prices. |
| 1642 T. Hill Trade of Truth 34 Christians should be Chapmen to buy, rather than *Salemen to sell. |
| 1883 C. A. Moloney W. African Fisheries 22 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.) The *sale-market is large and wide enough. |
| 1856 Bouvier Law Dict., *Sale note, a memorandum given by a broker to a seller or buyer of goods, stating the fact that certain goods have been sold by him on account of a person called the seller to another person called the buyer. |
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. ii. ii. (1651) 463 Sweet breath, white and even teeth, which some call the *sale-piece. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 135 White teeth being so justly accounted a precious and natural beauty, that they are hence called the Sale-piece. |
| 1901 Essex Herald 9 Apr. 4/8 The whole of this choice herd came into the *sale ring. |
| 1813 Examiner 10 May 297/1 Public *Sale-rooms. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. iv. vi. I. 446 The learned babble of the Sale-room. 1902 Daily Chron. 25 Oct. 3/7 These curious sale-room methods. |
| 1757 Connoisseur (ed. 2) III. 151, I am sure we have cast-off cloaths sufficient to furnish a *sale-shop. 1789 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Imit. Hor. i. xii. 31 Who soon shalt keep a saleshop for good places. 1795 J. Aikin Manchester 233 A sale shop for most articles. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 285 In Lionel Marks's antique saleshop window..candlestick melodeon oozing maggoty blowbags. 1957 Beaver Autumn 38/1 The ‘Saleshop’ classification marked a modest type of urban transition, from fur trade to general store operation. 1976 Derbyshire Times (Peak ed.) 3 Sept. 18/5 (Advt.), Self service grocery stores with modern detached house... Spacious living accommodation..plus saleshop 31ft. × 19ft. 6 ins. fully fitted for the trade. |
| 1481 in Foster Par. Ch. Whaplode (1889) 94 The said trees..when thei shall be felled..at such tyme as thei be *saleworth. |
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 441/1 *Sale worthy, vendibilis. 1547 Bk. Marchauntes c vj, I would wit..if her marchantdyse were sale worthy. |
| 1901 M. Franklin My Brilliant Career iv. 18 He was a familiar figure at the Goulburn *sale yards every Wednesday. 1934 [see backing ppl. a.]. 1975 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Sept. 61/1 Normally stud stock are sold either from yards on the farm itself, or by auction at recognized centrally situated saleyards. |
b. Comb. with
sales-, modelled on
salesman,
saleswoman,
e.g. sales appeal,
sales area,
sales campaign,
sales chart,
sales correspondent,
sales curve,
sales figures,
sales force,
sales-gentleman,
sales girl,
sales-goer,
sales graph,
sales-lady,
sales-manager,
sales-master,
sales message,
sales outlet,
sales-people,
sales-person,
sales presentation,
sales promoter,
sales promoting,
sales promotion,
sales volume; also with plural,
sales-book, a book or record of sales;
sales clerk N. Amer., a shop asistant;
sales drive, an energetic effort to sell goods extensively; hence
sales-drive v. trans.;
sales engineer, a salesman with technical knowledge of his goods and their market; hence
sales engineering;
sales pitch [
pitch n.2 5 b]
= sales talk; hence
sales pitchery;
sales rep:
colloq. abbrev. of next;
sales representative, one who represents a commercial firm to prospective customers and solicits orders; a traveller (
cf. representative n. 4 a);
sales resistance, the ability or disposition to resist buying something offered for sale; also
fig.; hence
sales-resistant a.;
sales room = sale-room (see above);
sales slip, a slip of paper recording the price of an article and other details of its sale;
sales talk, persuasive rhetoric designed to promote the sale of goods or (
transf.) the acceptance of an idea;
sales tax, a tax levied on the retail sales of commodities;
† sales-work = sale-work (see 4 a).
| 1931 C. Bedell Seven Keys to Retail Profits iii. 36 Instead of using a $20 bill to give him two profit opportunities, a double sales appeal, many a retailer spends the entire twenty for a quantity of one item. 1936 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XL. 289 In the case of commercial aircraft, at any rate, by the gain in ‘sales appeal’ resulting from the general air of cleanness. 1966 B.B.C. Handbk. 39 Another sales area which has great potential—the distribution of programmes for non-theatric use in schools, universities, training colleges. 1771 Encycl. Brit. I. 619/1 The Sales-book. This book too is chiefly used by factors; and into it is posted, from the Waste-book, the particular sales of every consigned cargo. 1809 R. Langford Introd. Trade 76 The manner that a Sales-book is ruled. 1969 D. C. Hague Managerial Econ. iii. xiii. 288 We talk of price wars, sales campaigns, marketing strategies. |
| 1959 ‘F. Newton’ Jazz Scene iv. 72 Rhythm and blues have not only swamped ordinary pop music in America and Britain, at least in terms of the sales-chart, [etc.]. |
| 1934 Webster, Sales clerk. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 39 A 19-year-old Toronto sales clerk. 1979 Honolulu Advertiser 8 Jan. d3/9 Sales Clerk..full time and part time. Apply at B.S. Co. Ward Warehouse. |
| 1951 in M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 41/3 A book that ought to be read by all advertising writers, sales correspondents, editors and business-paper writers. 1961 Evening Standard 14 July 20/3 Sales Correspondent in an expanding Mail Order Organization. |
| 1946 Sales curve [see roof n. 2 a]. 1969 ‘J. Morris’ Fever Grass ix. 81 You know I'm worth it. Just watch your sales curves. |
| 1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 144/2 Every success drive and sales drive is committed to erasing this [sc. resistance] in all its varieties. 1962 Punch 21 Nov. 754/1 To..sales-drive their dish-washing machines. |
| 1942 Sun (Baltimore) 16 July 2/6 Three self-styled ‘sales engineers’ stood to garner commission on millions of dollars of Government war work. 1969 Sales Engineer Mar. 29/1 (Advt.), A Sales Engineer is any person who is directly or indirectly selling technical products to industry. Sales Engineering is not a trade, it is a profession, and the readers of Sales Engineer are professionals. |
| 1966 G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising x. 99 The only criterion of success known to the advertising profession—sales figures. |
| 1934 Webster, Sales force, the sales clerks or sales agents of an establishment. 1974 Times 9 Mar. 24/6 (Advt.), Opportunity for a girl..to join Sales Force in the exciting new ski development of Anzère. 1980 M. Babson Queue here for Murder ii. 21 Soon the Bonnard's sales force would start clocking in, and..after that the customers. |
| 1887 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 2 Feb. 4/7 In order to cripple his old partner, he offered superior inducements to the sales girls to go with him. 1978 M. Kenyon Deep Pocket xi. 136 The squeak of a salesgirl flattened against a wall. |
| 1925 Glasgow Herald 6 Jan. 7/2 The large number of men among the sales-goers. 1967 R. Jeffries Deadly Marriage i. 8 I've returned with firm orders for three parlour-sheds... That'll put the old graph up... The sales graph. |
| 1856 Daily Alta California (San Francisco) 29 Oct. 4/3 (Advt.), Wanted—By a young lady, a situation as saleslady in a dry goods, trimming, or millinery store. 1883 Century Mag. XXVI. 610/2 The..ranks of seamstresses and ‘sales-ladies’. 1928 Sunday Dispatch 5 Aug. 5/6 An amatory porter and a sales-lady sitting on some dirty steps on the Underground. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 20 June 8-d/5 (Advt.), Mobile Lot-Imperial Park. All city utili. Call Real Estate saleslady Geri Erickson, 252-0264. |
| 1913 Writer's Mag. Nov. 184/2 The Accountant, Detroit, Mich., is in the market for interesting business stories—material of interest to business managers, advertising and sales managers, [etc.]. 1933 H. Nicolson Diary 5 Jan. (1966) 131 We are then met by..the sales-manager of Doubleday Doran. 1979 R. Perry Bishop's Pawn i. 13 My cover as sales manager for a multinational electronics firm. |
| 1890 Farmer's Gaz. 4 Jan. 1/3 The salesmasters and dealers. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 392 A worthy salesmaster that drove his trade for live stock and meadow auctions hard by Mr Gavin Low's yard in Prussia street. 1966 G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising iii. 30 The kernel of the sales message..has to be in some way special and different for each product. |
| 1957 C. Smith Case of Torches iv. 46 We must..keep the Belgian company as healthy as possible otherwise we stand to lose their valuable sales outlets. 1977 Times 5 Nov. 12/7 For..the purchasers of holidays, there will be..a wider choice of sales outlets. |
| 1876 Scribner's Monthly Feb. 599/2, I walked through the crowds of purchasers and salespeople. 1976 Evening Standard 14 June 24/8 (Advt.), 2 salespeople required to manage small gift shop. 1978 Tucson Mag. Dec. 33/1 If you find pleasure in being the only customer in the midst of a convention of used car salespeople, you'll love buying stereo equipment in Tucson. |
| 1920 Harper's Mag. June 86 We have long been familiar with salesman and saleswoman—even, alas! with saleslady; and the latest member of the family to whom we have been introduced to, salesperson, a name intended to apply to employee of either sex. 1928 Publishers' Weekly 10 Nov. 1962/2 We shall be glad to send a complimentary copy of the novel on request to any retail salesperson to read. 1955 Sun (Baltimore) (B ed.) 12 Sept. 10/7 The ‘pencil box’ she bought for her grandson and which the salesperson called a ‘companion’, wasn't a box at all. 1976 Evening Standard 14 June 24/5 (Advt.), Salespersons required for expanding Northern based home improvement company. 1980 Times 18 Feb. 12/6 One of those cheap department stores where you may browse for several weeks without even locating a salesperson at all. |
| 1962 Listener 18 Jan. 133/2 Ditchburn went through a masterly sales pitch. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 19 June 1/5 In fact, as things turned out, it was an extraordinary sales pitch for Reagan himself. It drew $600,000 and made Reagan the new conservative star. 1980 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Feb. 145/2 Managers are impatient and practical people who, having accepted our sales pitch, will want to learn how to use what they have bought. |
| 1968 Punch 7 Aug. 206/1 Close scrutiny reveals the fan of a camp follower beneath the canopy; or, perhaps, then as now, she was sketched in merely as a piece of crypto-sexual sales-pitchery. |
| 1947 Fortune Nov. 175/1 (Advt.), They bring real ‘theater’ to a sales presentation. 1981 W. H. Hallahan Trade iv. 111 My firm is doing the sales presentation for the Essen Arms Company. |
| 1935 Punch 4 Sept. 264/1 The great advantage of being a Sales Promoter is that the working hours are short. Ibid., Sales Promoting is one of those lovely jobs in which it is impossible to judge by results. |
| 1916 (title) Sales promotion by mail: how to sell and how to advertise. 1964 A. Wykes Gambling iii. 70 A young Indian businessman..went to Tokyo on a sales-promotion visit for his firm. 1979 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVII. 346/2 Ingenuity, in..sales promotion..creates better value for the customer. |
| 1969 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 23 Mar. 23/3 Sales reps in their company cars are my number-one headache. 1979 Business Traveller Nov.–Dec. 46/1 The sales rep has been sweating it out..in the hope of clinching a much bigger deal. |
| 1949 Daily Tel. 21 Nov 2/5 Experienced Sales Representatives. 1981 ‘E. Ferrars’ Experiment with Death iv. 83 He's a sales representative for a firm of confectioners. |
| 1925 New Yorker 4 July (verso front cover), ‘Beggar on Horseback’ presents no sales resistance problem... The buying public flocks. 1933 P. Fleming Brazilian Adventure i. x. 88 Girls..sold flags for the Red Cross... Posters exhorted them to ‘give our young men courage’: an injunction which I suppose they thought it would be easier to obey if they first broke down the young men's sales resistance. 1972 M. Babson Murder on Show xvi. 185 Heaven help you the day some woman gets her hooks into you—you've no sales resistance at all. 1979 E. H. Gombrich Sense of Order i. 19 In the history of Greek rhetorical theory such ‘sales resistance’ developed into an aesthetic prejudice on the part of purists against all forms of verbal fireworks. |
| 1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Mar. 174/3 His sympathies are so one-sidedly Jewish that he sometimes makes a reader sales-resistant. |
| 1840 Knickerbocker XVI. 226 Ejecting a crowded audience from his sales-room, because an unlucky wight had the temerity to bid six-pence for a tattered copy of Paradise Lost. 1891 Century Dict., Salesroom, same as sale-room. 1929 W. Faulkner Sanctuary (1981) xvi. 186 The block..was filled by a row of automobile sales-rooms. 1981 Times 20 July 18/5 Used vehicle outlets..in..‘upmarket’ salesrooms. |
| 1962 Lebende Sprachen VII. 35/3 Sales slip, Barverkaufsschein, Kassenzettel. 1965 G. Jackson Let. 25 Feb. in Soledad Brother (1971) 64, I asked Robert to send me some shoes... They have to be sent from Sears by the salesman, cost no more than $25, have the price or sales slip in the box. 1976 New Yorker 23 Feb. 35/1 Do you have a sales slip? |
| 1926 Amer. Speech II. 97/2 Slang is regularly employed, especially in the ‘sales-talk’ letters [sent by business firms], but it must have a definite snap and appropriateness. 1933 Punch 1 Feb. 122/2 ‘No sales-talk?’ ‘No... These bolts sell themselves.’ 1968 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 1 Aug. (1970) 697 Mayor Richard Daley..was giving Lyndon a sales talk about coming to Chicago. 1974 N. Marsh Black as he's Painted ii. 52 Motivated by sales-talk and embarrassment, he bought..a cat bed-basket. |
| 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 27 Oct. 2/6 An important decision affecting the Dominion sales tax was rendered by Judge Gunn here. 1940 Economist 31 Aug. 282/1 To secure additional tax revenue, the sales tax has been raised from 5 to 10 per cent [in New Zealand]. 1978 N.Y. Times 30 Mar. b1/2 His anti-government attitude and promise to veto any sales tax or income tax the Legislature may pass has won him many followers. |
| 1959 Listener 26 Mar. 552/2 In order to increase the sales-volume of a new shade of lipstick. 1775 Ash, Saleswork, work done for sales, work slightly performed. |
4. attrib. passing into adj. a. That is made to be sold; that may be purchased (not being needed for home use); hence, ready-made (as opposed to
home-made); of inferior quality;
e.g. sale bread,
sale cloth,
sale door,
sale gimlet,
sale ram,
sale ware,
sale work (also
attrib.). Also, connected with or producing things sold or intended for sale,
e.g. sale gardener,
sale kiln,
sale pond. ? Now applied only to animals bred or fattened for sale.
| 1455 Rolls of Parlt. V. 304/1 The Subsidie and Awenage of sale Clothes, in the Counte of Wiltes. 1505 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 392 That there be no sale bread..mad in towne, but by ffre men. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa ii. 69 In old time there were almost an hundreth shops of sale-bookes. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 43, I see no more in you then in the ordinary Of Natures sale-worke? 1601 Dent Pathw. Heaven (1603) 35 God hath not given such gifts unto men to the end they should make sale-ware of them. 1671 Clarendon Dial. Tracts (1727) 314 They would find ample recompense in the first growth of their children, un⁓impaired by any ill qualities of sale-milk. 1679 Shadwell True Widow Epil., Our Poet therefore Sale-work Habits makes. 1691 J. Gibson in Archæologia XII. 191 Darby, at Hoxton,..is master of several curious greens that other sale-gardeners want. 1778 W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 20 Feb. an. 1777, A middling field-load of wheat will yield a sale-load of straw, of 1296 lb. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 396 Most of the farmers here burn lime for themselves..and think they have it much cheaper than it could be got from a sale kiln. 1815 S. Parkes Chem. Ess. I. 300 In the end they [sc. ash-pit doors] will be found to be more economical than any ready-make sale-doors. 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 166 The common English sale gimlets are either soon broken at the point by our woods, or else the handle becomes loose. 1886 C. Scott Sheep-farming 151 The sale ewe lambs. Ibid. 157 These sale rams are injured, and in many cases rendered useless by overfeeding. 1895 Funk's Standard Dict., Sale-pond,..a pond devoted to fishes kept for sale. |
† b. That may be had for payment; venal, mercenary. (
Cf. salary a.
1)
Obs.| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iii. 936 Sale-tongu'd Lawyers, wresting Eloquence, Excuse rich Wrong, and cast poore Innocence. 1602 Dekker Honest Wh. i. vi, Belike then shee's some sale curtizan. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. 293 A multitude thronged together of vendible or sale souldiors. 1650 Milton Eikon. i. 12 Nothing troubl'd or offended at the working upward of thir Sale-venom thereupon. |
▪ III. † sale, n.3 Obs. Also 6
saile,
sayle.
[Northern form of sole n. (OE. sál). The form saile may represent directly the cognate ON. seil.] A rope for tying up cattle. Also
attrib. † saleband.
| c 1299 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 496 In tractubus, cordis, salband (etc.), 28s. 11d. 1434–5 Ibid. 232 Redyls, 6 hoxes bowes, 7 salys, ferrura boum et plowshon. 1599 Mem. St. Giles's Durham (Surtees) 27 Paid for a saile to the bull, jd. 1668 Ibid. 75 For a sayle and band to ty the Bull in. |
▪ IV. † sale, n.4 Obs. [a. or ad. OF. sale (see salle) or It. sala: cf. sale n.1] A hall.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix. 401 This great Cell or Hall, is a yard deepe of blackish Water..: Hauing more than halfe way entered in this Sale [etc.]. a 1648 Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1683) 233 The next day, obtained Audience of the King; Who in a great Sale (or Hall) sate on his Throne. |
▪ V. sale, v. rare.
[f. sale n.2] 1. intr. and trans. To sell.
| 1809 Gifford in Mem. F. Hodgson (1878) I. 115 Lord Byron's poem sales well I understand. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 555 Lovely ladies saling gloves. |
2. intr. To hold a sale; to shop at the sales. Hence
ˈsaler, a person who frequents sales;
ˈsaleing vbl. n. All now
rare or
Obs.| 1901 Sketch 3 July 443/1 To go ‘saleing’ in Bond Street. 1902 To-Day XXXV. 447/1 All London is ‘saleing’ at the present moment. 1928 Daily Express 19 June 3/2 Men went ‘sale-ing’ at lunch time. 1928 Morning Post 25 June 8 Many experienced ‘salers’ will tell you that it is an excellent plan to go to the sales with an open mind. 1928 Daily Express 31 Dec. 5/3 ‘Saleing’ has become a specialised art. 1929 Ibid. 8 Jan. 3/4 The great furniture houses are ‘saling’. |
▪ VI. sale see
sail,
seal,
soul.