fishmonger

English

WOTD – 3 October 2010

A fishmonger (person who sells fish) at work

Etymology

From Middle English fisshemonger; equivalent to fish +‎ monger.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪʃˌmʌŋɡ.ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

fishmonger (plural fishmongers)

1. (UK) A person who sells fish.

   Synonyms: fishman, (formal, rare) ichthyopolist

   • 1850, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Plato; or, The Philosopher”, in Representative Men: Seven Lectures, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, […], page 58:

     If he made transcendental distinctions, he fortified himself by drawing all his illustrations from sources disdained by orators and polite conversers; from mares and puppies; from pitchers and soup-ladles; from cooks and criers; the shops of potters, horse-doctors, butchers, and fishmongers.

2. (UK, rare) A shop that sells fish; a fishmonger's shop, a fishmonger's.
   • 1931, Grace Hegger Lewis, Half a Loaf‎^[1], H. Liveright, page 225:

     And Susan, sure of this inevitable answer, would ask Cook to pop into the fishmonger for a nice bit of salmon, […]

   • 1990, Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Light Years, Simon and Schuster, published 1995, →ISBN, page 294:

     A nice woman at the fishmonger in Earl’s Court Road—she had to walk miles to find a fish shop—told her how to cook the fillets of plaice she bought.

   • 2007, Leslie Ann Bosher, To the Manor Drawn, Murdoch Books, →ISBN, page 157:

     Cornish peppered mackerel, smoked haddock, Scottish herring and pearl-white skate wings are all laid on a bed of crushed ice at the fishmonger.

3. (figurative, archaic) A pimp.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

Hyponyms

• (person who sells fish): (female): fishmongeress (fishmongress), fishwife, fishwoman, piscatrix (historical)

Translations

person who sells fish

• Arabic: سَمَّاك m (sammāk), بَائِع سَمَك m (bāʔiʕ samak)

  Egyptian Arabic: سماك m (sammāk)

• Aragonese: pescatero
• Armenian: ձկնավաճառ (jknavačaṙ)
• Bashkir: балыҡ һатыусы (balıq hatıwsı)
• Basque: arrain-saltzaile (eu)
• Belarusian: гандля́р ры́бай m (handljár rýbaj)
• Catalan: peixater (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 魚商／鱼商 (yúshāng), 魚販子／鱼贩子 (zh) (yúfànzi), 魚販／鱼贩 (zh) (yúfàn)

• Danish: fiskehandler (da) c, fiskemand c
• Dutch: vishandelaar (nl) m, visboer (nl) m, visverkoper (nl) m
• Estonian: kalakaupmees
• Faroese: fiskahandlari m
• Finnish: kalakauppias (fi)
• French: poissonnier (fr) m, poissonnière (fr) f, marchand de poisson m
• Friulian: pessâr m
• Galician: peixeiro (gl)
• German: Fischhändler (de) m, Fischhändlerin (de) f, Fischverkäufer (de) m, Fischverkäuferin (de) f
• Greek: ιχθυοπώλης (el) m (ichthyopólis)
• Haitian Creole: pwasonye
• Irish: ceannaí éisc m
• Italian: pescivendolo (it) m, pescivendola (it) f
• Japanese: 魚屋 (ja) (さかなや, sakanaya) (person or store)
• Korean: 생선 장수 (saengseon jangsu)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: masîfiroş (ku) m or f

• Ladino:

  Roman: balukchí m

• Latin: bolonae m pl
• Norman: paîssonnyi m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fiskehandler m

  Nynorsk: fiskehandlar m

• Ottoman Turkish: بالقجی (balıkcı)
• Persian: ماهی‌فروش (fa) (mâhi-foruš)
• Polish: sprzedawca ryb m
• Portuguese: peixeiro (pt) m, peixeira (pt) f
• Romanian: negustor de pește m, pescar (ro) m
• Russian: рыботорго́вец (ru) m (rybotorgóvec), торго́вец ры́бой m (torgóvec rýboj)
• Spanish: pescadero (es) m, pescadera (es) f
• Swedish: fiskhandlare (sv) c
• Thai: คนขายปลา (kon kǎai bplaa)
• Turkish: balıkçı (tr)
• Ukrainian: торго́вець ри́бою m (torhóvecʹ rýboju)
• Vietnamese: ngưởi bán cá
• Volapük: (♂♀) fitatedan (vo), (♂) fitahitedan, (♀) fitajitedan

fishmonger's — see fishmonger's

pimp — see pimp