plain dealer
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From plain + dealer, after plain dealing.
Noun[edit]
plain dealer (plural plain dealers)
- Someone who interacts or does business straightforwardly and honestly. [from 16th c.]
- c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
- Ant. Why thou didst conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit.
S. Dro. The plainer dealer, the sooner lost; yet he looseth it in a kind of iollitie.
- 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, section VI:
- She as often acted the Plain-Dealer with him, and fairly told him [...] that, in Truth, she had nothign but a very Small Spot to which she had any Hereditary Right [...].
- 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter number or name)”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC:
- ‘If plain speakers are scarce in this part of the world, I fancy that plain dealers are still scarcer.’