I'm not sold on this usage.

A real estate agent had an ad in our local paper, listing some of her "recent solds". Apparently, this is the latest thing among realtors: http://www.google.com/#q=%22recent+solds%22

Recent sales is so last week!

I think I could accept it, as they're meaning it like in the "sold" slapped across the "for sale" sign, and not really trying to say "solds" is a proper word. It's pretty much a cutesy gimmicky thing.

It's similar to (dare I say it) "reads" meaning books or reading experiences. Still makes me wince...

Sold is a perfectly respectable noun, if slightly obsolete: a soldier's pay; a soldier; or a small coin, as you prefer. But the most recent solds reported by the OED are from the 17th century, which is probably not compatible with the production targets of a modern estate agent.

What if she sold a 17th century estate, though?

I'm now wondering whether this has any connection to the confusion some writers have between ''sell'' and ''sale'', especially in the South (US) where the two words are often sounded alike.

Here in Birmingham, Ala., I recently ran across a misuse by a reporter for the ailing Birmingham News, which no longer provides any editorial oversight to its young skeleton crew of "content providers." The reporter mentioned either a "bond sell" or a decision "to sale bonds"; I forget which.

Uncertainty about spelling can generate aversion to a word, so this may have driven some realtors to coin "solds" as a way to avoid "sales/sells" uncertainty.

>1 lilithcat:

FYI, "Realtor" is an American coinage that one of our trade associations regards as a trademark. So the correct spelling is supposedly Realtor®, and the person referred to cannot be just any old agent but must be a member of the National Association of Realtors®.

This is a form of pedantry I can’t endorse, especially considering that said association is one of our leading purchasers of politicians, and the Realtor lobbyists in my state have been such reliable advocates for the privileges of slumlords.

So for my money, realtor should be used as a generic noun, if only because it annoys some of the right people.

I was puzzled by my first sight of what realtors sell - realty. My first thought was that someone had just mislaid an 'i', and I wondered how much reality I'd get for a dollar. By the time I found out, I'd been mugged ... which shows that for a dollar you can get more reality than you can handle ...

Looking at the entry for "realtor", I noticed that the editors of the OED seem to have been having a bit of fun when they defined the "-or" suffix: (Not productive in English.) Forming nouns of condition, as error n., horror n., liquor n., livor n., mucor n., pallor n., squalor n., tenor n.1, torpor n....

>1 lilithcat: You will probably find that the estate agent was ribbed for posting “recent sails” the week before and was trying to make amends.