salesperson; shop assistant; vendor
General term for someone who sells goods, ranging from store clerks to street vendors. The cross-reference 販売員 is a more formal equivalent.
See also: 販売員
Archaic meaning; not used in modern Japanese. Historically referred to a male sex worker.
She works as a salesperson at a department store.
At the festival, vendors were loudly calling out to customers.
In Edo-period documents, there are examples where 売り子 refers to a male prostitute.
Standard kanji spelling; commonly used in news and everyday contexts.
Search-only variant; not a standard modern spelling.
Compound of 売り (uri, 'selling', the continuative form of 売る) and 子 (ko, 'person' or 'child'), literally 'selling person'. The archaic sense likely developed from the idea of someone who sells their body.