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Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Realtor

1916, "real estate agent," American English, coined by real estate agent Charles N. Chadbourn of Minneapolis, Minn., to distinguish the legitimate section of the business; popularized 1920s; patented as Realtor by the National Association of Real Estate Boards.\n\nThe 1916 Convention of the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB) approved the adoption of the term as the official designation of an active member of the Association. In 1920 the District Court of Hennepin County, Minnesota, decided in favor of the Realtors in a case against a telephone directory publisher that had indiscriminately used the word in listings. The court asserted that the word "had never been used in any way whatsoever until so invented" and could thus be used only by those duly licensed by the National Association of Real Estate Boards. Until the Lanham Acts of 1948 changed federal patent regulations to allow protection for registered collective marks, the National Association fought and won sixteen cases on the local and state levels to protect its symbolic property.

[Jeffrey M. Hornstein, "The Rise of Realtor," in "The Middling Sorts: Explorations in the History of the American Middle Class," New York, 2001]

Wiktionary
realtor

n. (context North America English) A person or business that sells or leases out real estate, acting as an agent for the property owner.

WordNet
realtor

n. a person who is authorized to act as an agent for the sale of land; "in England they call a realtor a land agent" [syn: real estate broker, real estate agent, estate agent, land agent, house agent]

Usage examples of "realtor".

The crowd moves away, revealing Ann, standing in front of the realtors, looking at a card in her hand.

Shelter realtors, either, but other agencies appeared to be out in force.

Every morning and noon black and white professionals, government workers, blue-collar laborers, lawyers, judges, bankers, and realtors are packed shoulder to elbow.

A few bidders had cellular phones jammed to their ears-- realtors or lawyers acting as agents for absentee investors.

Like an unwanted suitor now he pestered me with calls, interrupted television shows to flash messages upon the screen, broke in on my own calls, to friends, lawyers, realtors, stores.

The crowd was still thick and swarming when Cameron noticed Anne MacDugal, a local Realtor, waiting by her car in the parking lot across the street.

There was one half page of notes and pictures devoted to the engagement of one Anita Bannerman to Vance Colby, a prominent realtor who had settled in Culver City some year and a half before.

Charles Griffen, who sold the farm through a Portland realtor for what Pritchett called 'a bargain basement price', could not be reached for comment.

A movie house, a bank, a couple of realtors, ice cream and pizza parlors, supermarkets, drugstores, bars, a half dozen greasy spoons, a couple of upmarket but still essentially tacky restaurants, a Lutheran church, a sheriff's office with a small jail facility for drunks to dry out in, two motels.

Most Negro realtors deny this, citing the law of supply and demand.

Brandy calls all the realtors to find which open houses have people still living in them.

By day she did property management for vacation rentals at a local realtor, sometimes putting in ten- or twelve-hour days during the peak seasons, but she realized that hours spent and actual work were two different things.

We represent a television personality who wishes to remain nameless, Denver tells the realtor.

The site of the new plant was a vacated textile mill, and the smart mick realtor handling the deal kept calling him.

Back in the room, she phoned the realtor in Titusville who rented her the house.