Merriam-Webster defines a comprador as "a Chinese agent engaged by a foreign establishment in China to have charge of its Chinese employees and to act as an intermediary in business affairs"
Oxford defines it as "A person who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation:"
It comes from the Portuguese comprador, which means purchaser or buyer. I'm writing something about Chinese history, and, as I've encountered the phrase "comprador bourgeoisie", referring to the social class made up of compradors, for the time being I am using "burĝa aĉetisto" as a substitute. But I would like feedback on if there is a better way I could translate this word, as I haven't found a suitable translation in the reta vortaro or the PIV.
1 Answer
Since Esperanto is meant to be universally understood, one should introduce new a concept using terms that describe the concept. Later you can refer to the concept with a name tag you have defined, if the describing name is too convoluted.
So let me break down the meaning of the term "comprador bourgeoisie". You define comprador as a professional broker, an intermediary or a middleman in business affairs. The established term for such person is called makleristo in Esperanto
The English term "bourgeoisie" refers to a particular social class, burĝaro. However that term may feel misplaced in this context (see PIV). A social class is klaso (see defintion 2), so you may refer to that group by maklerista klaso or makleristaro using the group ending -aro.
When it comes to the Portugese term "comprador", if it was widely used about those Chinese brokers at that time, you could mention it in the beginning, but later makleristoj and its derivaties should be enough.
Putting all this together you could write something like:
Gravan parton en la komerco rolis ĉinaj makleristoj, kiujn oni kutime nomis "comprador", kiu estas la portugala vorto por…
Tiuj makleristoj formis sian propran socialan klason, kiu…
La makleristaro kaŭzis, ke…
