Regratter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a dealer who buys food or goods in bulk and resells them locally, often at a higher price
2. A historical middleman who purchased provisions from producers and sold them again in a nearby market for profit
3. Someone in older English trade who bought up supplies such as grain or produce and resold them at a mark-up

Etymology: Medieval English law had a name for a trader who bought up goods such as grain, butter or fish in a market and resold them there at a higher price, and it was not a compliment. The practice itself was called regrating, and English statutes punished it as an offence against fair prices. The name likely comes from Old French "regratter," which meant to scrape or pare off an outer layer, such as the rind of a fruit, and by extension to haggle over small goods. It is probably linked to "gratter," to scrape, which suggests a picture of the middleman skimming profit off the top. English took the noun from Anglo-Norman, so it arrived through the law courts and market towns rather than through scholarship.

Synonyms: huckster, hawker, peddler, retailer

Antonyms: wholesaler