detailman
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
detailman (plural detailmen)
- A sales representative for a pharmaceutical company.
- 1952 October 13, Richard L. Williams, “‘To sleep: perchance…’”, in Life, volume 33, number 15, page 110:
- Nearly every pharmaceutical house has its own brands, sold in tablets, solutions or brightly-colored capsules, on which its “detail men” keep doctors informed. Probably the most popular successors to Veronal are Seconal (“red birds” to the bootleg trade) and Nembutal (“yellow jackets”).
- 1989, P. Reed Maurer, Competing in Japan, page 34:
- It is remarkable that any physician has time to see detailmen (pharmaceutical company sales representatives).
- 2011, Jessica Leavitt, Fred Leavitt, Improving Medical Outcomes:
- About one hundred thousand of them in the United States visit doctors' offices with drug samples, dinner invitations, tickets to ball games, and various other gifts. Drug companies spend about $5 billion annually on detailmen and their gifts.