Dictionary

sellsword en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈsɛlˌsɔːd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈsɛlˌsɔɹd/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From sell + sword. Compare hired gun.

Meanings

1. (usually) A mercenary.
   • Bandit: It's those fool villagers...They think they can buy a bunch of sellswords to chase us away. 2005, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, "Chapter 1: The Battle Begins", developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube
   • The sellsword scrambled backward, checking each blow, stepping lithely over rock and root, his eyes never leaving his foe. He was quicker, Catelyn saw; the knight's silvered sword never came near to touching him, but his own ugly grey blade hacked a notch from Ser Vadis's shoulder plate. 1996, George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire), Bantam Books (2011), →ISBN, pages 367–368:
   • One such warrior was Kothar, cast up by the sea in the northlands of his world, a sellsword and a mercenary, a wencher after the women of his day, a freebooter and a thief, at times, whose sword Frostfire was a magic sword. 1969, Gardner Francis Fox, “Prologue”, in Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman, reprinted in The First Kothar the Barbarian MEGAPACK, Wildside Press, published 2016, →ISBN:
   • Your profession always charges high and never guarantees their work. No sellsword would stay alive if he demanded a sorcerer's terms. 1982, Robert Lynn Asprin, “Exercise in Pain”, in Storm Season, →ISBN:
2. (broadly, derogatory, figuratively, often) Someone who only works for money, in the manner of a mercenary.
   • Whenever I see Alcides Escobar make another unbelievable play at shortstop, I can’t help but think we got the better of the deal in the trade for Zack Grienke. The money-hungry Grienke is now pitching for the Dodgers and admits he wanted to play for the team that paid him the most cash. A sellsword. A gunslinger for hire. 2013 April 2, Matt Stewart, “Opinion: Royals poised to make the playoffs”, in Fox 4 (Kansas City), archived from the original on 31 May 2013:
   • And the author soon discovered that Farmer was a talented polyglot, a master of over two dozen languages who worked as a linguistic sellsword for financial research companies desperate to translate global business news for analysts. 2019 December 22, Annalee Newitz, Cyrus Farivar, “Nick Farmer knows dozens of languages, so he invented one for The Expanse”, in Ars Technica:
   • Soccer is class warfare, a battle between the haves and the have-nots, and those with more money and resources always win. In soccer, The Empire is undefeated. And José Mourinho, the world's greatest sellsword, the man who has discovered nothing in soccer but how to win, is its face. 2014 April 28, Greg Howard, “José Mourinho Is The Antichrist: A Closet Liverpool Fan's Lament”, in Deadspin, retrieved 24 Nov 2014:

Forms

Synonyms

mercenary (mercenary)