Haberdasher
A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zips, and other notions.[1] In American English, haberdasher is another term for a men's outfitter.[2] A haberdasher's shop or the items sold therein are called haberdashery.
Origin and use
The word appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Haberdashers were initially peddlers, sellers of small wares such as needles, buttons, etc. The word could derive from the an Old Norse word akin to the Icelandic haprtask, which means "peddlers' wares" or the sack in which the peddler carried them. If this is the case, a haberdasher (in its Scandinavian meaning) would be very close to a mercer (French). Perhaps more likely, since the word has no recorded use in Scandinavia, it is from Anglo-Norman hapertas, meaning 'small ware'.[3] A haberdasher would retail small wares, the goods of the peddler, while a mercer would specialize in "linens, silks, fustian, worsted piece-goods and bedding".[4]
Saint Louis IX, the King of France 1226–70, is the patron saint of haberdashers in France.[5][6]. In Belgium and other places in Continental Europe, it is Saint Nicholas, while in the City of London the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers adopted Saint Catherine as the patron saint of the guild.[7]
Notable haberdashers
- William Adams - a 17th century London Haberdasher born in Newport, Shropshire, who founded Adams' Grammar School in 1656
- Robert Aske - a philanthropist
- William Baldwin - actor, who became interested in haberdashery on the set of Double Bang in 2001
- Captain James Cook, (R.N., FRS) - 18th century British navigator and explorer, apprenticed to this job in his youth
- Daniel Defoe- the famous writer of Robinson Crusoe
- Richard Goldthorpe -Yorkshire based haberdasher and real estate owner
- John Graunt - one of the first demographers
- Christopher Lloyd - actor, e.g. "Dr. Emmett Brown" in the Back to the Future trilogy
- Jerome Knapp Junior
- Wayne Knight - actor, e.g. "Newman" from Seinfeld
- Joseph Merrick, "the Elephant Man", worked as a haberdasher's assistant before being a freak show act
- George Newnes - founder of the Tit-Bits newspaper (1881) and the popular The Strand Magazine, of Sherlock Holmes fame
- Paavo Nurmi - legendary Finnish distance runner
- Charles Taze Russell - the founder of the Bible Student Movement which, after his death, ultimately led to the formation of Jehovah's Witnesses
- Harry S. Truman - President of the United States from 1945-1953[8]
See also
References
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989: "A dealer in small articles appertaining to dress, as thread, tape, ribbons, etc.
- ^ Collins Dictionary of the English Language (1979)
- ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=haberdasher
- ^ Sutton, Anne F. (2005). The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130-1578, p.118. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0754653315
- ^ Catholic Culture, St. Louis IX
- ^ Patron Saints Index
- ^ [1]
- ^ NOVA #1001