Etymology

customer

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Today it means: A habitual patron, regular purchaser, returning client; a person or company who has a custom of buying from a particular business. Full definition →

Middle English custumer ← Old French coustumier ← Medieval Latin custumarius
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The story

  1. Medieval Latin · derived fromcustumarius“a toll-gatherer, tax-collector”
  2. Old French · derived fromcoustumier
  3. Middle English · inherited fromcustumer
  4. English todaycustomer

From Middle English custumer, 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.

Words from the same roots

Medieval Latincustumarius all →

customary

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.