costermongery

English

Etymology

costermonger +‎ -y

Noun

costermongery

1. The fruits and vegetables sold by a costermonger.
   • 1851 October, “Our General Review”, in The American Whig Review, volume 8, page 349:

     France, after all, takes the attention first, in spite of the splendid and praiseworthy costermongery of the Crystal Palace.

   • 1867, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch - Volume 53, page 209:

     I DEALS in costermongery, But in my callin' makes no noise; For 't ain't amongst the hungry As I cries taturs and savoys.

   • 1890, Lord Sidney Godolphin Osborne, Arnold White, The Letters of S.G.O.:

     For my own part I have yet to learn that, in the eyes of Heaven, a grim, infidel, Sabbath and week-day dealer in costermongery is one whit a more pitiable object than a West End, wealthy idler, who fritters away life in club, turf, park, opera, and St. John's Wood—so-called pleasure—without one real, serious though upon a life to come, or one real, serious effort to do good to a single fellow-creature.

2. The business of a costermonger; the process of selling frutis and vegetables from a cart or barrow.
   • 1894, William Foster Apthorp, Musicians and Music-lovers, and Other Essays, page 144:

     So he now rode like all possessed through the wares of fish and costermongery in the Naples market, making everything fly about as in a whirlwind; cackling and curses followed his course, angry fists were clenched at him.

   • 1905, Alexander Hay Tod, Charterhouse, page 226:

     The occupations of waterside work, costermongery, basketmaking, paper-bag making, of carman and puller-down, fish hawker, and such like, belong to the very humble walks of life.

   • 1914, William Frend De Morgan, When Ghost Meets Ghost, page 134:

     In the course of these last few months of active costermongery, of transactions in early peas and new potatoes, spring-cabbage and ripe strawberries, he had acquired not only an insight into commerce but apparently an intimate knowledge of every street in London, and a very fair acquaintance with its celebrities;

   • 1967, John Marlborough East, 'Neath the mask: the story of the East family, page 214:

     Costermongery flourished outside in the New Kent Road, and in the immediate vicinity of the barrows a scent of fresh violets blended subtly with that of oysters, a commodity appreciated round the calendar in this district.

Adjective

costermongery (comparative more costermongery, superlative most costermongery)

1. Like a costermonger, especially rough or poor.
   • 1860, Walter Thornbury, Turkish Life and Character - Volume 1, page 39:

     They may not be as bold and chivalrous as the shaggy Newfoundland, as lithe and crescenty as that shivering exile the Italian greyhound, as droll and muffy as the Isle of Skye, as sturdy and sagacious as the Spanish pointer, as vivacious and hearty as the smooth terrier, or as dogged a dog as the bulldog, that most costermongery and bloodthirsty of “our four-footed favourites,” as Mr. Woodstock, the popular lecturer, would call it.

   • 1878, Truth - Volume 3, page 378:

     Then there is a great deal in cravats, Ella—those miserable little black strings seeming costermongery, when compared with the expansive scarf.

   • 1993, Ellen Ross, Love and Toil: Motherhood in Outcast London, 1870-1918, →ISBN:

     The nurse even grilled one plump and very “costermongery” woman on the mechanics of pawning, revealing an ignorance her interlocutor found most hilarious.