chaffer

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtʃæfə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) enPR: chăfʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃæfɚ/
• Rhymes: -æfə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English chapfare (“bargain, trade”, noun), equivalent to cheap + fare.

Verb

chaffer (third-person singular simple present chaffers, present participle chaffering, simple past and past participle chaffered)

1. (intransitive) To haggle or barter.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Character of a Good Parson; Imitated from Chaucer, and Inlarg’d”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     To chaffer for preferment with his gold.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Alteration”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 25:

     Walter declined the invitation, precisely because he wanted a dinner. He was, also, conscious that he had made a very bad bargain; but how could he chaffer and dispute about things so precious as the contents of those pages which were the very outpourings of his heart?

   • 1866, “Mr. Dod's Six Shots”, in Harper's Magazine‎^[1], volume 32, page 208:

     While he is at the front end selling calico to some wearisome old lady, sunbonneted and chaffering, a mischievous boy is very apt to be pocketing lumps of sugar for profit, or starting the faucet of a molasses barrel for fun at the other.

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     But the people looked much like Caleb’s own. They wore dirty robes, chaffered at fruit stalls, spat, scratched.

2. (transitive) To buy.
3. To talk much and idly; to chatter.
   • 1922, John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga:

     The Dartie within him made him chaffer for five minutes with young Padwick concerning the favourite for the Cambridgeshire.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• bargain
• barter
• haggle
• negotiate

Translations

haggle or barter

• Bulgarian: пазаря се (pazarja se)
• Finnish: tinkiä (fi)

Noun

chaffer (countable and uncountable, plural chaffers)

1. (uncountable) bargaining; merchandise
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC:

     vittels, and other chaffer and merchandize were excéeding cheape: for at London a quarter of wheat was sold for two shillings

2. (countable, slang, obsolete) A person's mouth.

   Moisten [or] damp your chaffer: take something to drink.

Translations

bargaining; merchandise

• Bulgarian: пазарлък (bg) m (pazarlǎk)

References

• (the mouth): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Etymology 2

From chaff +‎ -er.

Noun

chaffer (plural chaffers)

1. (agriculture) The upper sieve of a cleaning shoe in a combine harvester, where chaff is removed
   • 2003, William W. Casady, “Grain Harvesting Systems”, in Dennis R. Heldman, editor, Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering‎^[2], →ISBN, page 449:

     A fan blows air through the chaffer to remove lightweight material known as chaff.

2. A person or thing which chaffs.

Coordinate terms

• blower
• cleaning sieve

Translations

upper sieve of a cleaning shoe

• Finnish: yläseula
• German: Obersieb n

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈχafɛr/

Verb

chaffer

1. Aspirate mutation of caffer.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
caffer	gaffer	nghaffer	chaffer
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.