Why do we still have fishmongers and cheesemongers, but not producemongers or textilemongers?
The question came up recently, after a listener wrote in about calling his daughter, who worked at Monahan’s Fish Market in Ann Arbor, a “fishmonger.” If fishmongers exist, he wondered, why don’t we use the word more broadly for other kinds of sellers?
The verb "mong" goes back to Old English, though its roots are actually in Latin. It meant “to trade” or “to barter goods.” That’s how we get the noun “monger,” which also goes back to Old English and could refer to a merchant or a trader or a dealer.
For centuries, English speakers used the term for all kinds of sellers: fishmongers, ironmongers, fleshmongers, and alemongers — ordinary merchants dealing in ordinary goods.
By the 1500s though, "monger" had started to shift. It became associated not just with trade, but with activities people viewed as petty, disreputable, or undesirable. This included things like scandalmongers, superstitionmongers, and fashionmongers.
“Monger” also came to be associated with people who stirred things up or would spread negative things around – hatemongers, gossipmongers, warmongers, etc. By the early 20th century, "monger" had also started functioning as a verb meaning “to deal in” or “to traffic in."
Once "monger" became a verb, we could talk about things like “warmongering,” as in, “Stop that warmongering.” That means people engaged in warmongering are sometimes referred to as “warmongerers.” This awkward yet grammatically logical use still sounds awkward to many ears.
For more mongering, listen to the audio above.
