A young male employee in a shop or bank who handles cash and performs errands related to money transactions.
Compound of 'cash' (from Portuguese 'caixa' via Hindi) and 'boy' (from Old English). The term emerged in 19th-century British commerce to describe junior workers who managed monetary operations.
In Victorian-era department stores, cashboys were the original 'runners' of retail—they'd dash between counters collecting money, making change, and delivering receipts, essentially becoming the nervous system of transactions before electronic cash registers existed.
Cashboy is gendered masculine despite retail roles being gender-mixed; historically cash-handling roles in retail were stratified by gender with boys/men receiving better pay and advancement.
Use only when referring to historical context; replace with gender-neutral 'cashier,' 'cash handler,' or 'retail associate' in contemporary usage.
["cashier","cash handler","retail associate","cashperson"]
Retail work, historically devalued, was stratified by gender; women cashiers were paid less for identical work, a pattern that persists in many service sectors.
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