"Monger" was once used as a verb, but it now is typically only employed as the second element of compound words. My OED says examples of such formations are "unlimited", with examples beginning in the 13th century: hay-mongers, holy-water mongers, insect-mongers (?) etc. The most familiar would likely be cheese-monger, coster-monger (fruit/veggies), fishmonger, ironmonger, and whore-monger.
As the last-named example suggests, the OED notes that from the 16th century onward, the term nearly always carries the implication of a petty, disreputable, or contemptible trade in the material - as in the modern "rumor-monger" "gossip-monger" and "scandal-monger."
Here is a coster-monger:
No comments:
Post a Comment