Pedlere

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who travels from place to place carrying small goods to sell to customers along the way
2. Someone who moves through towns and villages offering wares such as trinkets, cloth or household items for sale
3. An itinerant trader who hawks portable merchandise door to door or along the roadside

Etymology: A peddler was once simply a person who carried goods on their back in a basket. The root is "ped," an old word for a basket or pack, now mostly lost outside this family of words. The "-ler" ending is the same agent suffix found in words like "tippler" or "baker," so the whole thing means "one who deals in a basket of wares." The spelling in this form, "pedlere," is a Middle English version that shows the word before modern spelling settled. Where "ped" itself came from is uncertain, so the basket is the firmest part of the story.