† costermongeryn.
Obsolete.
The realm or work of costermongers.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > selling > selling or sale of specific things > [noun] > foodstuffs
victuallership1450
greengrocery1749
pork butchering1816
costermongering1822
costermongery1823
cheesemongering1826
costering1851
pork butchery1852
fishmongering1862
grocery1885
1823 Examiner 23 May 206/2 These students in the histrionic art are also students in various other arts; such as carpentry, coopery, costermongery, smithography, stay-stitchery, &c.
1865 Pall Mall Gaz. 19 July 3 The language of costermongery is more expressive..than..polished.
1888 Athenæum 11 Feb. 171/2 St. Thomas's was peculiar in another way. Costermongery was the ‘industry’ of the place.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
† costermongeryadj.
Obsolete.
Characteristic or suggestive of a costermonger.
ΚΠ
1829 Standard 12 Nov. The wheelbarrow, weights, and measures, together with some coals and fruit, and other costermongery articles, of..an itinerant retailer of coals &c. were found lying on the bank of the Clyde opposite Finnieston.
1832 Morning Post 1 Feb. The ‘sweet voices’ which with oniony taint assailed the air with shouts for ‘Grey and Reform’ are quietly occupied in their wonted constermongery cries.
1860 All Year Round 7 Jan. 257 The bulldog, that most costermongery and bloodthirsty of ‘our four-footed favourites’.
1907 E. G. Henham Feast of Bacchus ii. ii. 123 Drunkenness is so vulgar and costermongery.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
<
n.1823adj.1829