businesspeoplen.
/ˈbɪznᵻsˌpiːpl/, U.S. /ˈbɪznᵻsˌpip(ə)l/, /ˈbɪznᵻzˌpip(ə)l/ 1. A people, nation, etc., engaged in or concerned with business and commerce. Now rare.
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1821 N.-Y. Literary Jrnl. Feb. 245/1 We wish to continue as we have been, a business people.
1847 Dublin Rev. Sept. 147 English people are, more even than they themselves are aware, a business people.
1900 F. G. Carpenter S. Amer. xi. 103 They are not a business people... The business of the country is in the hands of foreigners.
1955 Boston Sunday Globe 11 Sept. c2/3 It is often said that we are a business people, a society in which the ethics of the market place have become in large part the moral standards by which we live.
2. Businessmen and businesswomen collectively. Cf. businessperson n.
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1827 W. P. Scargill Blue-stocking Hall I. xv. 93 The proposal was made, and accepted, the horrid business-people are put in motion.
1874 T. E. Hill Hill's Man. Social & Business Forms 133/1 Of all the chances for loss which business people have to contend with, that by failure of banks is the least.
1914 W. G. Lawrence in T. E. Lawrence Home Lett. (1954) 502 Bankers and business people of all sorts are the real limit.
1951 Los Angeles Sentinel 5 Apr. a8/2 They..have been good businesspeople and good citizens.
2010 C. Seife Proofiness iii. 78 Savvy businesspeople have figured out how to make themselves very wealthy through risk mismanagement, and their misdeeds are so great that they put the world economy into enormous danger.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1821