I have long been suspicious of the word Realtor, Realtor®, REALTOR®, or whatever it is.
It began years ago when I noticed that the National Association of Realtors stressed that they were called the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and that their members were obviously called…REALTORS®
That’s right. All caps and with the registered trademark symbol. What the Hell?
Babbitt
My suspicions were further piqued when, in Chapter 13, Section 1, of Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt, title character George Babbitt says:
First place, we ought to insist that folks call us ‘realtors’ and not ‘real estate men’. Sounds more like a reg’lar profession.
No caps, no trademark symbol. Babbitt was published in 1922.
NAR
The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® says that
Since 1916, when the unique term REALTOR® was first “coined” or “invented”, the public has come to recognize those who use the MARKS as Members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®…
Congress
I found an interesting article published in The New York Times on May 18, 1922. The previous day, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Curry of California, said,
…it comes from the Spanish words ‘real,’ meaning royalty, and ‘tor,’ meaning bull.
Mencken
Is this right, though? H.L. Mencken, writing in The American Language, apparently did not believe so. Word Detective tells us:
“The suggestion that ‘realtor’ is derived from two Spanish words,” wrote Mencken, “‘real,’ meaning royal, and ‘toro,’ bull, and that it thus connotes ‘royal bull,’ is spurned by the bearers of the name.” Mencken went on to note that the suffix “or” was undoubtedly carefully chosen, since “or” has always carried more dignity than the equivalent “er,” citing “author” as weightier than “writer,” and “advisor” outgunning “adviser.” Such delicate considerations count, no doubt, when you are trademarking a noun.
