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* [[Hatmaking|Millinery]]
* [[Hatmaking|Millinery]]
* [[Worshipful Company of Haberdashers]]
* [[Worshipful Company of Haberdashers]]
* [[Mercery]]


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 16:05, 11 October 2014

A haberdashery in Brussels

A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zips, and other notions (in the United Kingdom[1]) or a men's outfitter (American English[2]). A haberdasher's shop or the items sold therein are called haberdashery.

Origin and use

A haberdasher's shop in central Madrid

The word appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[3] Haberdashers were initially peddlers, sellers of small items such as needles and buttons. It should be noted that the word is thought to have no connection with an Old Norse word akin to the Icelandic haprtask, which means peddlers' wares or the sack in which the peddler carried them.[4] If that had been the case, a haberdasher (in its hypothetical Scandinavian meaning) would be very close to a mercer (French). Since the word has no recorded use in Scandinavia, it is most likely derived from the Anglo-Norman hapertas, meaning small ware.[5] 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".[6]

Saint Louis IX, King of France 1226–70, is the patron saint of French haberdashers.[7][8] In Belgium and elsewhere in Continental Europe, Saint Nicholas remains their patron saint, while Saint Catherine was adopted by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers in the City of London.[9]

Notable haberdashers

Paavo Nurmi, in 1939, at his Helsinki haberdashery

See also

References

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989: "A dealer in small articles appertaining to dress, as thread, tape, ribbons, etc.
  2. ^ Collins Dictionary of the English Language (1979)
  3. ^ "The British Library, The Canterbury Tales, Caxton's first edition". Molcat1.bl.uk. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
  4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989: haberdash, n. "Connexion with mod.Icel. haprtask 'haversack' is not possible."
  5. ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
  6. ^ Sutton, Anne F. (2005). The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130–1578, p.118. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0-7546-5331-5
  7. ^ "Catholic Culture, St. Louis IX". Catholicculture.org. 2008-08-25. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
  8. ^ "Patron Saints Index". 2heartsnetwork.org. 2011-02-16. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
  9. ^ "Company HIstory". Haberdashers. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
  10. ^ "Paavo Nurmen herrainvaateliike oli Mikonkadulla". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 9 September 2006. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  11. ^ NOVA #1001