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shop girl

shop girl

2 3.4
A young woman who helps customers in a shop
  • noun
  • UK
translation icon : dependienta
  • Accordingly, romance comics featured high school students, college coeds, secretaries, nurses, shop girls, young wives, and even some young mothers.

Examples

  • The shop girl greeted me with a warm smile as I entered the store.

  • Can you imagine me as a shop girl?

  • I was a shop girl.

  • You were always the shop girl who fought her way to the top, made a great success.

  • Well, you're not a little shop girl anymore.

  • I lie awake at night, and all I can think is I should have been a shop girl or a stenographer.

  • So have writers, businesswomen, scholars, shop girls, secretaries, a couple of lawyers, and a few single moms.

    Blog text (12)
  • While working as a shop girl, she developed excellent customer service skills.

  • The shop girl patiently helped me find the perfect dress for the party.

Synonyms

salesgirl
vsshop girl
  • Archaic
9 1.6

A young woman who sells things in a shop

emphasizes assisting customers as part of the role rather than sales
saleslady
vsshop girl
  • Archaic
3 2.1

A woman who sells things in a shop to customers

means a younger female worker rather than an adult woman
shopgirl
vsshop girl
  • Archaic
2 3.2

A young woman who works in a shop selling things to customers

is the same meaning but written as one word rather than two
shop assistant
vsshop girl
  • UK
1 1.2

A person who helps customers and sells things in a shop

specifies a young female worker rather than a gender neutral person
shop clerk
vsshop girl
1 1.9

A person who helps customers buy things in a store

refers specifically to a young female worker rather than a neutral employee

Surface Forms

shop girl singular
shop girls plural

Morphology

shop + girl

The meaning 'a young woman who works as a sales assistant in a shop' is directly derivable from combining 'shop' (a place of retail) with 'girl' (a female person), yielding a female worker associated with a shop. This noun–noun compounding pattern is regular and cross‑linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Shop girl comes from a simple, literal naming: the words shop (the place that sells things) and girl (a young woman) were put together long ago to mean a young woman who works in a shop. So, it now means 'a young woman who works as a sales assistant'.