Auctioneer
/ˌɔːk.ʃəˈnɪər/noun
A person who conducts auctions by offering items for sale to the highest bidder.
Did you know?The core of auctioneer comes from Latin augēre, meaning “to increase,” which also lies behind words like augment and august—so an auctioneer is literally a person who “makes value grow” in public.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₂eug-
“to increase, strengthen”
Latin
Latin
augēre
“to increase, augment”
Latin
Latin
auctiō
“an increase; an act of enlarging; later, a sale by bidding”
Late Latin / Medieval Latin
Latin
auctionārius
“pertaining to auction sales”
Middle English
English
auccioun
“a sale by public bidding”
18th Century
English
auctioneer
“one who conducts an auction”