Haberdasher

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈhæb.ə(ɹ)ˌdæʃ.ə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A merchant who sells small wares such as buttons, needles, thread, ribbons, and other notions used in sewing and garment making
2. A retail trader specializing in small sewing accessories like buttons, needles, thread, and ribbons for garment construction and repair
3. A shopkeeper dealing in miscellaneous fasteners, trimmings, and notions essential for tailoring and domestic needlework

Etymology: The word's origin is murky, and the most striking thing about it is how little anyone can pin down for certain. The likeliest candidate is Anglo-Norman "habertas", a term for small goods, which may have reached English in the 13th century. Under that theory, a haberdasher was originally a dealer in the odds and ends of the textile trade: pins, buttons, thread, tape and ribbon, the small wares that were too minor to count as cloth but too useful to ignore. Some scholars have instead proposed that "haberdash" was formed backwards from the trade name, with "haberdashery" coming first and the agent noun "haberdasher" derived from it. That reversal is still unresolved, so the sequence of the two forms remains an open question. What is clear is that the trade was defined by small, practical goods rather than by a single material.

Synonyms: tailor, clothier, outfitter, merchant, retailer