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spacciatore

drug dealer

noun spah-chah-TOH-reh Rare
People & Society Crime

Origin: From spacciare, to peddle or pass off (goods); originally meant any street vendor.

Also means

pusher

Usage Note

Spacciatore is the masculine form; the feminine is spacciatrice. It derives from spacciare, which also means to pass off counterfeit goods or to sell quickly — so context determines whether someone is a market vendor or a drug dealer. In crime reporting, spacciatore di droga removes all ambiguity.

Examples

"La polizia ha arrestato uno spacciatore in piazza."

Natural Translation

The police arrested a drug dealer in the square.

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