commercial traveler
1
4.4
- noun
- /kəˈmɜrʧəll ˈtrævələr/
- Archaic
- Being a commercial traveler means you often spend nights away from home while meeting customers.
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Watch on YouTubeWhat is it like to be to go from being a commercial traveler to being a giant bug in your family apartment, Right?
- What is it like to be to go from being a commercial traveler to being a giant bug in your family apartment, Right?
Examples
-
A commercial traveler from Kimberley, a regular at the hotel always referred to by their father as "the Scotchman," he had been trying all morning to get through to his wife, who was expecting a baby.
Fiction book (1996) -
An occasional commercial traveler stayed overnight, or a family moving across country from one small, desolate town to another in hope of something better.
Fiction book (1996) -
You are a commercial traveller, I believe?
-
He'll think I'm a commercial traveler.
-
Picture yourself as a commercial traveler in Venice during a trade fair at the end of the 12th century.
Academic text (2017) -
They worked as rubber cutters, pine finishers, vocal teachers, expressmen, brick masons, bleachers, and commercial travelers.
Fiction book (1997) -
As a commercial traveler, she visited many cities to meet clients and showcase new products.
-
Last month, a commercial traveler came to our store to discuss a potential partnership.
Synonyms
12
4.4
A person who travels to different places to meet customers and sell goods or services
11
5.7
A person who travels to sell small goods in streets or markets
5
7.4
A person who sells goods in the street or at markets
1
8.6
A traveling seller who visits shops with samples to sell
1
9.7
A person who travels with a box to sell goods
1
8.9
A person who travels to sell goods to customers
A person who travels to sell or give out books, often religious
A person who travels to sell small goods like ribbons or buttons
How Mobile
72
3.5
- Archaic
1
4.4
7
2.7
- UK
2
1.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a traveler engaged in commercial activity' is directly and transparently derived from 'commercial' (pertaining to trade) + 'traveler' (someone who journeys). This adjective + noun composition is a standard, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The term commercial traveler comes from an older job: a traveler who did commercial work, carrying sample boxes from shop to shop to 'sell' or 'take orders'. So the picture of a person moving from place to place with goods explains why it means 'a person who travels to sell goods'.