Cornmonger

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A seller specifically involved in the trade of corn, often acting as a merchant focused on that particular grain
2. An individual who specializes in the buying and selling of corn, functioning primarily within agricultural market environments
3. A trader who deals exclusively in the sale and purchase of corn, often serving as a specialized supplier in agricultural commerce

Etymology: "Cornmonger" is built from two English words that were already in use: "corn" and "monger." In Old English, "corn" was a general word for grain, so a cornmonger was simply someone who dealt in grain, the staple food of the day. The second element, "monger," comes from Old English "mangere," a word for a dealer or trader, and it appears in older compounds such as "fishmonger" and "ironmonger." The "-monger" element carries a faint shadow in English. Because the word was so often attached to goods that were bought and sold in bulk, it could sound like a trade that cornered the market, and it later gained an unfavourable tone in some uses. The compound itself, however, is a plain, descriptive formation: a trader in grain, named by joining the commodity to the trader.