shopgirl

American  

[shop-gurl] / ˈʃɒpˌgɜrl /

noun

1. a salesgirl; female store clerk.

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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word for a girl or woman whose job is to sell products or help customers in a retail shop.The term is often considered outdated and demeaning due to the use of the word girl when such workers are often women.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

First recorded in 1760–70; shop + girl

Example Sentences

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

We read “Shopgirl” with Steve Martin there, and after most people had drifted on home, Mr. M and I wound up on the Riordan kitchen floor, playing with the dogs.

From Los Angeles Times

She was just to the part where the main character, a shopgirl who was being courted by a mysterious man who Ophie was certain was a secret millionaire, was going to finally kiss her beau when a voice said, “Have you gotten to the part where he proposes to her yet?”

From Literature

Indeed, the series is stocked with comedians, also including Dave Attell as a rabbi, John Early and Kate Berlant as Beth’s prospective customers, Janelle James as a shopgirl, Yamaneika Saunders as Beth’s best old friend Maya and Gary Gulman as Maya’s “Jew date” — and Schumer is clearly giving them room to work, often sitting back and playing straight.

From Los Angeles Times

The woman who checked into the Barbizon, as Bren describes her, “was the debutante who couldn’t tell her parents she wanted to paint; she was the shopgirl from Oklahoma who dreamed of the Broadway stage; she was the eighteen-year-old who told her fiancé she would be right back, but first there was a typing course she needed to take.”

From Washington Post