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costermonger

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: costermongers

A costermonger is a street trader selling fruit and vegetables. A London costermonger.

They had their own slang, their own barrows and a reputation for both. The costermonger is where the pearly kings and queens of London come from.

John Thomson · No restrictions

Definitions of costermonger

  1. 1nouncostermongerA street trader selling fruit and vegetables.C2

    “The costermonger had worked the same corner for forty years.”

costermonger is a trader.

Where it comes from

Costard, a large ribbed apple, plus monger, a dealer; so the word began as an apple seller and widened from there.

From costard + monger.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

costermonger in the wild

  • A costermonger, coster, or costard is a street seller of fruit and vegetables in British towns.

    Costermonger

  • Some historians have noted a class hierarchy in which the costermonger sold from a handcart or animal-drawn cart, while the lower-level hawker carried wares in a basket.

    Costermonger

  • A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with costermonger or peddler.

    Hawker (trade)

  • A young female costermonger known as "Carrots" helps her policeman boyfriend thwart a criminal gang led by her own brother.

    Carrots (film)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.