Forms: 6 costerde monger, costerd-m., costerdm., costardem., 6–7 costardm., 7 costard-m., costar’-, coster-monger, (costerd-, costermunger, costormonger, custard-monger, 9 arch. costardm.), 6– costermonger. [f. COSTARD an apple + MONGER dealer, trader.]
a. orig. An apple-seller, a fruiterer; esp. one who sold his fruit in the open street. Hence, b. Now, in London, a man who sells fruit, vegetables, fish, etc., in the street from a barrow.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), 2. Than [was he] a costermonger. Ibid. (1515), Egloges (Percy Soc.), 26. I was acquaynted … With a costardemonger, and with an hostler.
1530. Palsgr., 209/1. Costardmongar, fruyctier.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 124. To go before, and put out the Costermongers Candles, who use to sit with lights in the streets.
1608. D. Carleton, in Times, 30 Nov. (1883), 3/6. Costerdmungers that sell fruite uppon the passages.
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., iii. (1634), 23. Which he culs out to admiration if strangers come, as a Costardmonger his fairest pippins.
1683. Crowne, City Politiques, IV. i. (1688), 44. To have a Fool carry a great Basket of it [Poetry] on his Head, like a Costard-monger.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 350. These stairs are much frequented by costermongers, who have large warehouses near them for their fruit and cyder.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, vii. No apple-wife … can settle her account with a costermonger without an audience of the reluctant Justice.
1864. Knight, Passages Work. Life, II. xiii. 369. The costermonger has monopolised all the old cries of radishes [etc.].
1886. G. R. Sims, in Daily News, 4 Dec., 5/4. A very old costermonger informs me that a man who carries a basket is a hawker, a man who has a barrow is a costermonger, and a man who has a donkey or a pony and cart is a general dealer. But I fancy that general dealer is often a euphemism for coster.
fig. 1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xxxvi. (1741), 190. Concerning the several virtues of these academical apples … I profess myself a philosophical costermonger.
1812. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life, I. vi. 209. From all the selected fruits of all the poetical costermongers … could ye choose nothing more promising than this green sour apple?
c. As a term of contempt or abuse; also attrib.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 191 (Qo.). Vertue is of so little regard in these costermongers [mod. edd. costermonger] times.
1781. Cowper, Lett., 15 Feb. In these costermonger days, as I have a notion Falstaff calls them.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., V. ii. (1849), 265. Thou art some scurvy costard-monger knave.
Hence Costermongerdom, the community or realm of costermongers; Costermongered ppl. a., occupied by costermongers; Costermongering vbl. sb., Costermongery sb., the occupation of a costermonger; Costermongery a., resembling or suggestive of a costermonger.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 365/2. The interest of the man and woman in the business was closer than in costermongering.
1860. All Year Round, No. 37. 257. The bulldog, that most costermongery and bloodthirsty of ‘our four-footed favourites.’
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 July, 3/1. The language of costermongery is more expressive and powerful than grammatical and polished.
1888. Hadden, in Athenæum, 11 Feb., 171/2. St. Thomas’s was peculiar in another way. Costermongery was the ‘industry’ of the place; the district was Costermongria.
1889. J. Thomson, Trav. Atlas, xxvi. The whole donkey-riding costermongerdom of Maraksh.
1892. Daily Tel., 18 May, 5/6. Liverpool-street is alleged to be the most costermongered street in the world for its size.
