bummaree

/ ˌbʌməˈriː /

noun

1. a dealer at Billingsgate fish market

2. a porter at Smithfield meat market

Word History and Origins

Origin of bummaree¹

C18: of unknown origin

Example Sentences

Described by journalist James Greenwood in 1875 as "great burly fellows with bluff faces, deep chests, and still deeper voices, with a smack of the waterman about them... and a faculty for mental arithmetic which is perfectly surprising", a bummaree was a middleman between the large salesman and the retailer at Billingsgate fish market.

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"Passellew" Family—Lady Petre's Monument—Spenser's Age at his Death—Blessing by the hand—Handel's Occasional Oratorio—Moore's Almanack—Kiss the Hare's Foot—Derivation of the World "Bummaree" or "Bumaree"—Sheridan and Vanbrugh—"Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum"—"Alterius Orbis Papa"—Umbrella—To learn by Heart—"Suum cuique tribuere"—Frogs in Ireland—Round Towers—Lines on the Temple—Killigrew Arms—Meaning of Hernshaw—Theory of the Earth's Form—Coke and Cowper, how pronounced—Registry of British Subjects Abroad, &c.

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I cannot think that "bona venalia," goods set to sale, among the Romans, give any clue to Bummaree.

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I have been informed that the only other use of the word known is with the confectioners, who use Bummaree pans.

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Their ranks, however, are swelled in the following way: A salesman, having disposed of his own fish, will "bummaree" for the sake of the possible profit, or a fishmonger, having purchased a double supply for a cheaper price, will "bummaree" half his purchase.

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