shopgirl
Americannoun
Usage
What does shopgirl mean? Shopgirl was once commonly used as a word for a girl or woman whose job is to sell products or help customers in a retail shop. The term is often considered outdated and demeaning due to the use of the word girl when such workers are often women. The same is the case for the synonym salesgirl. The terms salesclerk, salesperson, and sales rep (or sales representative) can be used to mean the same thing without specifying gender.
Etymology
Origin of shopgirl
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And how can Lee and Jessie’s families, not to mention a shopgirl in a town the team passes through on their journey, manage to keep pretending that “none of this is happening”?
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2024
Her uncle knew a buyer at Ron Herman, an upscale clothing store, and helped Weinraub secure a shopgirl position.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 29, 2016
Instead, Haynes deploys the cinematic conventions of the past to suggest the social constraints that governed same-sex affairs like the one between Rooney Mara’s lovelorn shopgirl and Cate Blanchett’s unhappily married matron.
From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2016
Carol is asked before absconding west with her shopgirl.
From Salon ● Nov. 30, 2015
I saw one shopgirl go by in a ball gown with the ruffles sounding crisp in the morning air.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
