scalper

English

Etymology

From scalp +‎ -er.

Noun

scalper (plural scalpers)

1. One who scalps, or removes the scalp of another.
   • 2013, M. Elise Marubbio, Eric L. Buffalohead, Native Americans on Film: Conversations, Teaching, and Theory:

     Denouncing representations of hostile Indians as vicious scalpers of innocent settlers […]

2. (US, Canada) One who scalps tickets to popular entertainment events: buying them in advance and then selling them (e.g. online or just outside the venue of the event), often at inflated prices.

   Synonym: (UK) ticket tout

   We could see three different scalpers moving through the crowd outside the arena, each muttering the characteristic refrain: “Need any tickets?”

   • 2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time‎^[1]:

     Although 4.1 million tickets were sold for the 2023 shows—including over 2 million on the first day, a new record—scalpers jacked up prices on the secondary market to more than $22,000.

3. (by extension) One who scalps any other item with limited availability.
4. (gambling) A gambler who scalps.
   • 1961, John Scarne, Complete Guide to Gambling, page 102:

     The only sure thing about scalping the Series today is that the scalper is paying the bookie a greater profit because he is making a greater number of bets.

5. (finance) A person on an open outcry exchange trading floor who buys and sells rapidly for his or her own account, aiming to buy from a seller and a little later sell to a buyer, making a small profit from the difference (roughly the amount of the bid/offer spread, or less).
6. A machine for removing the ends of grain, such as wheat or rye, or for separating the different grades of broken wheat, semolina, etc.
7. A surgical instrument for scraping carious bones.

   Synonym: scalping-iron

Translations

one who sells tickets unofficially

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 黄牛 (zh) (huángniú), 票販子 / 票贩子 (piàofànzi)

• Czech: překupník m
• Dutch: iemand die toegangskaarten meestal duur doorverkoopt
• Finnish: jobbari (fi), lipputrokari, trokari (fi)
• French: vendeur à la sauvette m
• German: Kartenschwarzhändler m
• Hungarian: jegyüzér (hu)
• Indonesian: calo (id)
• Italian: bagarino (it) m
• Japanese: ダフ屋 (ja) (dafu-ya)
• Korean: 암표상(暗票商) (ampyosang)
• Latin: locārius m
• Macedonian: шиткач m (šitkač)
• Malay: ulat tiket (ms)
• Polish: konik (pl) m
• Portuguese: cambista (pt) m or f
• Romanian: bișnițar (ro) m, bișnițară f
• Russian: спекуля́нт театра́льными биле́тами (ru) m (spekuljánt teatrálʹnymi bilétami), спекуля́нт (ru) m (spekuljánt)
• Spanish: revendedor m, revendedora (es) f
• Swedish: skalperare
• Tatar: alıpsatar

one who resells items at inflated prices

• Finnish: trokari (fi)
• Spanish: revendón m

Anagrams

• carpels, clasper, craples, parcels, placers, reclasp

French

Etymology

From English scalp +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skal.pe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

scalper

1. (transitive) to scalp

Conjugation

Conjugation of scalper (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	scalper
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	scalpant /skal.pɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		scalpé /skal.pe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	scalpe /skalp/	scalpes /skalp/	scalpe /skalp/	scalpons /skal.pɔ̃/	scalpez /skal.pe/	scalpent /skalp/
	imperfect	scalpais /skal.pɛ/	scalpais /skal.pɛ/	scalpait /skal.pɛ/	scalpions /skal.pjɔ̃/	scalpiez /skal.pje/	scalpaient /skal.pɛ/
	past historic2	scalpai /skal.pe/	scalpas /skal.pa/	scalpa /skal.pa/	scalpâmes /skal.pam/	scalpâtes /skal.pat/	scalpèrent /skal.pɛʁ/
	future	scalperai /skal.pə.ʁe/	scalperas /skal.pə.ʁa/	scalpera /skal.pə.ʁa/	scalperons /skal.pə.ʁɔ̃/	scalperez /skal.pə.ʁe/	scalperont /skal.pə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	scalperais /skal.pə.ʁɛ/	scalperais /skal.pə.ʁɛ/	scalperait /skal.pə.ʁɛ/	scalperions /skal.pə.ʁjɔ̃/	scalperiez /skal.pə.ʁje/	scalperaient /skal.pə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	scalpe /skalp/	scalpes /skalp/	scalpe /skalp/	scalpions /skal.pjɔ̃/	scalpiez /skal.pje/	scalpent /skalp/
	imperfect2	scalpasse /skal.pas/	scalpasses /skal.pas/	scalpât /skal.pa/	scalpassions /skal.pa.sjɔ̃/	scalpassiez /skal.pa.sje/	scalpassent /skal.pas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	scalpe /skalp/	—	scalpons /skal.pɔ̃/	scalpez /skal.pe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “scalper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.