Customer (root: customer)

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: cus=tom=er

CIDE DICTIONARY

Customer, n. [A doublet of customary, a.: cf. LL. custumarius toll gatherer. See Custom.].

•  One who collect customs; a toll gatherer.  [1913 Webster]

  "The customers of the small or petty custom and of the subsidy do demand of them custom for kersey cloths."  [1913 Webster]
•  One who regularly or repeatedly makes purchases of a trader; a purchaser; a buyer.  [1913 Webster]

  "He has got at last the character of a good customer; by this means he gets credit for something considerable, and then never pays for it."  [1913 Webster]
•  A person with whom a business house has dealings; as, the customers of a bank.  J. A. H. Murray.  [1913 Webster]
•  A peculiar person; -- in an indefinite sense; as, a queer customer; an ugly customer.  Dickens.  [1913 Webster]
•  A lewd woman.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Customer, n.
1 a person who buys goods or services from a shop or business.
2 a person one has to deal with (an awkward customer).

Etymology

ME f. AF custumer (as CUSTOMARY), or f. CUSTOM + -ER(1)

THESAURUS

Customer

Adamite, being, bloke, body, buyer, cat, chap, character, client, consumer, creature, duck, earthling, fellow, groundling, guy, hand, head, homo, human, human being, individual, joker, life, living soul, man, mark, mortal, nose, one, party, patron, person, personage, personality, prospect, purchaser, regular, regular customer, shopper, single, somebody, someone, soul, sucker, tellurian, terran, worldling

ROGET THESAURUS

Customer

Purchase

N purchase, emption, buying, purchasing, shopping, preemption, refusal, coemption, bribery, slave trade, buyer, purchaser, emptor, vendee, patron, employer, client, customer, clientele, purchased, caveat emptor, the customer is always right.