Customer?

[palfreyman18]

Can anyone please tell me where the word customer originated from?

thanks

[IndieSinger]

Some say it's originally from the Old French custume or costume for custom (which is a habitual practice, like coming back into the same shop over and over) . The late Ango-French noun for the person was custumarius.

The first use of customer was in the 14th Century but it actually meant "Customs Official". It wasn't until early in the 15th Century that the meaning changed to the person who was doing the buying.

[brachiopod]

What I'd like to know is why, sometime around the late eighties, everyone from train passengers through to patients in hospital or those signing-on began to be referred to as 'customers'.

[IndieSinger]

I'd imagine it's just a continuation of its original meaning - a habitual practice of returning. This then extends to anyone/thing offering a service to which people return.

[Quizmonster]

'Customer' has had the extended notion of 'client' - suggesting a more professional relationship - as well as 'purchaser' since the 1890s rather than the 1980s. It is not inapt, therefore, that it is applied to such people; it has just re-emerged after falling into disuse, that's all.

[Quizmonster]

Ah! Synchrography again, Indie. We seem to be fated to meet thus, as it has not happened to me since the last time we scribbled simultaneously! Where on earth have you been?

[IndieSinger]

And the last two times I've come back - and by that I mean my very first posting each time - have both been the very sychrographic (?!) occaisions to which you refer!

Anyway, I think I'm back for good! Sometimes I get a bit busy to check the site for a few days, then the habit goes and I'm eventually left as an outsider! Good to see you again.