A derogatory British term for a shop assistant or clerk who works behind a counter, especially one considered to be of low social status.
From counter + jumper. This 19th-century slang combined the workplace (counter) with 'jumper' possibly from the idea of jumping up to serve customers, or an outdated term for a person.
Victorian snobbery was real—the upper classes used 'counterjumper' as an insult for working people, showing how language reflects and reinforces social class divisions of the era!
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