What does costardmonger mean?
A costardmonger was, strictly speaking, a dealer in costards — a large, hardy variety of apple widely grown in medieval England — and by extension any street vendor of fruit and vegetables. The word is essentially the older form of "costermonger," the term that survives today for itinerant produce sellers, famously associated with the barrow-boys of Victorian London. A costardmonger typically sold from a basket, barrow, or handcart, crying out prices in the street rather than trading from a fixed shop, which placed the trade among the humblest of urban occupations. Today the word is archaic and encountered mainly in historical writing, literature, or deliberate pastiche, where it lends period colour to scenes of markets and street life. Readers who meet it should understand it simply as a picturesque synonym for a fruit-and-vegetable hawker.
nounAn obsolete or dialectal form of "costermonger": a person who sells fruit and vegetables, originally specifically a seller of costards, a large variety of apple, especially from a barrow or cart in the street.
- (historical) A seller of costards, a large English variety of cooking apple.
- (archaic/dialectal) A street seller of fruit and vegetables generally; a costermonger.
"The old costardmonger wheeled his barrow through the market square at dawn, calling out the price of his apples."
"In Chaucer's London, the costardmongers' cries filled Cheapside as they hawked their great apples."
"The novel opens with a costardmonger pushing his cart through the fog-bound streets of Victorian London."
Regular plural; used when referring to such vendors collectively.
"The costardmongers gathered at first light to claim the best pitches in the market."
Every costermonger is named after a single medieval apple — the costard — so London's famous street traders owe their very title to one variety of fruit.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of costardmonger
The word combines "costard," the name of a large medieval English apple (itself from Anglo-Norman "costard," perhaps from Latin "costa," meaning rib, referring to the apple's ribbed sides), with "monger," from Old English "mangere," meaning trader or merchant. The fuller form "costardmonger" preserves the original reference to the apple, while the shortened "costermonger" became the standard modern spelling. The compound arose in Middle English, when street sellers were commonly named after their principal wares, as in "fishmonger."
How costardmonger is actually used
This word is archaic; modern usage overwhelmingly prefers "costermonger." It carries a quaint, historical flavour and appears chiefly in discussions of medieval or early-modern English street life.
Easily confused with costardmonger
"Costermonger" is the standard modern spelling of the same word, while "costardmonger" is the older or dialectal form that preserves the name of the costard apple in full.