customer

English

Etymology

From Middle English customere, custommere, from Old French coustumier, costumier (compare modern French coutumier), from Medieval Latin custumarius (“a toll-gatherer, tax-collector”, noun), from custumarius (“pertaining to custom or customs”, adjective), from custuma (“custom, tax”). More at custom. By surface analysis, custom +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌstəmə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌstəmɚ/

Noun

customer (plural customers)

1. (obsolete) A habitual patron, regular purchaser, returning client; one who has a custom of buying from a particular business.
2. A patron, a client; one who purchases or receives a product or service from a business or merchant, or intends to do so.

   Every person who passes by is a potential customer.

3. (informal) A person, especially one engaging in some sort of interaction with others.

   a cool customer, a tough customer, an ugly customer

   • 1971, Herman Wouk, chapter 52, in The Winds of War:

     Pug could just see Slote's pale face under his fur hat. "I don't agree with you on that. He's a pretty tough customer, Hopkins."

   • 2020 January 2, Philip Haigh, “Ten eventful years and plenty of talking points”, in Rail, page 54:

     This switch led to Philip Hammond becoming the Transport Secretary and he quickly proved to be a tricky customer, asking questions about rail spending and reining it back whenever possible.

4. (India, historical) A native official who exacted customs duties.
   • 1609, Danvers, Letters, i. 25; and comp. Foster, ibid. ii. 225

     His houses […] are seized on by the Customer.

   • 1615, Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 44:

     The Customer should come and visit them.

   • 1682, Hedges, Diary [Hak. Soc. i. 33]

     The several affronts, insolences, and abuses dayly put upon us by Boolchund, our chief Customer

Derived terms

• custie
• customer account
• customer base
• customer care
• customercentric
• customer experience
• customerize
• customerless
• customerlike
• customer-oriented
• customer relationship
• customer research
• customer resistance
• customer service
• customership
• customer success
• customer support
• customer-to-customer
• investomer
• multicustomer
• noncustomer
• promote to customer
• pure customer
• the customer is always right
• ugly customer

 

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to customer

• consuetude
• costumal
• costume
• custom
• customary
• customization
• customize
• customs

Translations

(obsolete) habitual patron, regular purchaser, returning client

French: chaland (fr) m, chalande (fr) f Italian: avventore (it) m, avventrice (it) f Spanish: parroquiano (es) m, casero (es) m, , marchante (es) m or f, vecero m

one who purchases or receives a product or service

Albanian: klient (sq) m Arabic: زَبُون m (zabūn), عَمِيل m (ʕamīl) Armenian: հաճախորդ (hy) (hačaxord) Azerbaijani: müştəri (az) Basque: bezero Belarusian: кліе́нт m (klijént), кліе́нтка f (klijéntka), зака́зчык m (zakázčyk), зака́зчыца f (zakázčyca) Bengali: খরিদ্দার (khoriddar) Bhojpuri: गहकी (gahᵊkī) Bulgarian: клие́нт (bg) m (kliént), клие́нтка f (kliéntka), мющери́я (bg) m (mjušteríja), мющери́йка f (mjušteríjka), купува́ч m (kupuváč), купува́чка f (kupuváčka), постоянен посетител m (postojanen posetitel) Burmese: ဈေးဝယ် (my) (jhe:wai), ဖောက်သည် (my) (hpauksany), ဝယ်သူ (waisu) Catalan: client (ca) m or f Chinese: Cantonese: 顧客／顾客 (gu3 haak3), 主顧／主顾 (zyu2 gu3) Mandarin: 顧客／顾客 (zh) (gùkè), 主顧／主顾 (zh) (zhǔgù) Czech: klient (cs) m, klientka m, zákazník (cs) m, zákaznice (cs) f Danish: kunde (da) c Dutch: klant (nl) m Esperanto: kliento Estonian: klient (et) Faroese: kundi m Finnish: asiakas (fi) French: client (fr) m, cliente (fr) f Galician: cliente (gl) m, seareiro (gl) m Georgian: მყიდველი (mq̇idveli), კლიენტი (ḳlienṭi) German: Kunde (de) m, Abnehmer (de) m, Käufer (de) m Greek: πελάτης (el) m (pelátis), πελάτισσα (el) f (pelátissa), θαμώνας (el) m (thamónas) Ancient: ὠνητής m (ōnētḗs) Hebrew: לָקוֹחַ (he) m (lakóakh), לקוחה f (lakokha) Hindi: ग्राहक (hi) m (grāhak) Hungarian: vevő (hu), ügyfél (hu), kuncsaft (hu), látogató (hu), vendég (hu) Icelandic: viðskiptavinur m, kaupandi m, skiptavinur m (dated), kúnni m Ido: kliento (io) Indonesian: pelanggan (id) Irish: custaiméir m Italian: cliente (it) m or f Japanese: 客 (ja) (きゃく, kyaku), (honorific) お客さん (ja) (おきゃくさん, o-kyaku-san), 顧客 (ja) (こきゃく, kokyaku), 得意先 (ja) (tokui saki) Kazakh: клиент (klient) Khmer: អតិថិជន (ʼaʼtethecŭən) Korean: 손님 (ko) (sonnim), 손 (ko) (son), 객(客) (ko) (gaek), 고객(顧客) (ko) (gogaek), 고객님 (gogaengnim) (honorific) Kyrgyz: клиент (kliyent) Ladino: mushteri Lao: ລູກຄ້າ (lo) (lūk khā) Latin: ēmptor (la) m Latvian: klients m, kliente f Lithuanian: klientas (lt) m, klientė f Macedonian: купувач m (kupuvač), купувачка f (kupuvačka), муштерија m (mušterija), муштерика f (mušterika), клие́нт m (kliént), клие́нтка f (kliéntka) Malay: pelanggan (ms) Maltese: please add this translation if you can Maori: apataki, kiritaki Mongolian: Cyrillic: үйлчлүүлэгч (mn) (üjlčlüülegč) Norwegian: Bokmål: kunde (no) m Occitan: client (oc) m Old English: please add this translation if you can Pannonian Rusyn: муштерия f (mušterija), купец m pers (kupec), трошитель m pers (trošitelʹ). Pashto: مشتري m (moštari) Persian: Iranian Persian: مُشْتَری (moštari) Polish: klient (pl) m, klientka (pl) f Portuguese: freguês (pt) m, freguesa f, cliente (pt) m or f Romanian: client (ro) m, clientă (ro) f, mușteriu (ro) m Russian: клие́нт (ru) m (klijént), клие́нтка (ru) f (klijéntka), зака́зчик (ru) m (zakázčik), зака́зчица (ru) f (zakázčica) (one who makes orders), покупа́тель (ru) m (pokupátelʹ), покупа́тельница (ru) f (pokupátelʹnica) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ку́пац m, муштѐрија m, куповац m, клијѐнт m, клијѐнтица f Roman: kúpac (sh) m, muštèrija (sh) m, kupovac m, klijènt (sh) m, klijèntica (sh) f Slovak: klient m, klientka f, zákazník m, zákazníčka f Slovene: odjemalec m, odjemalka f Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: kupowaŕ m, kupc m, kupowarka f Spanish: cliente (es) m or f, vecero m, comensal (es) m or f (of a restaurant, Latin America) Swahili: mteja (sw) class 1/2 Swedish: kund (sv) c Tajik: муштарӣ (muštari), мизоҷ (mizoj) Thai: ลูกค้า (th) (lûuk-káa) Turkish: müşteri (tr), alıcı (tr) Turkmen: müşderi Ukrainian: кліє́нт (uk) m (klijént), кліє́нтка f (klijéntka), замо́вник m (zamóvnyk), замо́вниця f (zamóvnycja), покупе́ць m (pokupécʹ) Urdu: مُشْتَری m (muśtarī) Uzbek: mijoz (uz), mushtariy (uz) Vietnamese: khách hàng (vi) Welsh: cwsmer (cy) m Yiddish: קליענט m (klient)

Anagrams

• costumer, suctomer