flour-monger

• flourmonger

Compare the Middle English surname Flurmongester.

flour-monger (plural flour-mongers)

1. A seller of flour.
   • 1898, “Early Life of John Blackwood”, in Annals of a Oublishing House: John Blackwood, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, page 11:

     […] I heard a ruffian behind saying, “E un farinajuolo” (“He is a meal-monger,” or rather “flour-monger”).

   • 1949 November 24, Holmes Alexander, “War Is On Against Bread Mongers”, in Fort Myers News-Press, Fort Myers, Fla., page 4:

     Finally, the department of agriculture maintains practically a year-round surveillance to keep the bread-flour mongers from their greedy grabs.

   • 1969 November 20, “A Swedish Emigration Is Recalled”, in The Austin Statesman, volume 99, number 81, Austin, Tex., page 5:

     Bishop Hill — said to be America’s first planned community, in the modern sense — was founded in 1846 when nearly 2,000 farmers and laborers sold their homes in central Sweden, pooled their resources and left for an uncertain future on the Illinois Erik Jansson, an itinerant flour-monger who regarded himself as chosen by God to convert the world.

   • 1997, Robin McKinley, Rose Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, published 1998, →ISBN, page 163:

     Has Master Jack forgiven you for preferring a short, stoop-shouldered flour[-]monger with hands like boiled puddings to his tall, elegant, noble self, whose white hands have never seen a day’s work?

   • 1998, Chun-shu Chang, Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang, “Racial Tension, Socioeconomic Conditions, and Country Life”, in Redefining History: Ghosts, Spirits, and Human Society in P’u Sung-ling’s World, 1640–1715, Ann Arbor, Mich.: the University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 142:

     Tradesmen in the Liao-chai are of all types and include salt merchants, cloth merchants, oil chandlers, grain dealers, rug and fur traders, innkeepers, flour mongers, owners of drugstores, grocers, tavern owners, vintners, pawnbrokers, and peddlers and hawkers selling all sorts of daily necessities.

   • 2001, James Moseley, “Birbal and the Seller of Oil”, in The Ninth Jewel of the Mughal Crown: The Birbal Tales from the Oral Traditions of India, Summerwind Marketing, Inc., →ISBN, page 101:

     The flour merchant smiled to himself. “This Birbal is a talkative halfwit,” he thought. “He is buying time because he knows that oilman cannot prove that the money pouch is not mine.” But, even as he had these thoughts, the flour-monger felt the cold stare of Birbal upon him.

   • 2001, Pavol Dobšinský, collector, David L. Cooper, editor and translator, “Two Rascals”, in Traditional Slovak Folktales, Armonk, N.Y., London: M. E. Sharpe, →ISBN:

     At night, while the flour-monger was sleeping, the cone-monger jumped to his feet and thought to himself, “I’ll take his sack instead of mine; why, he won’t know.” And he took the sack of ashes onto his shoulder and lit out for home. […] she brought a tub into which he poured, in great hope … pine cones. “Woman, bring a tub!” the second fellow also called when he was arriving at home. “I’m bringing you flour.” […] But out poured ashes.

   • 2006, Annette C. Alder, The Knight Sorcerers: Magic Blades, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, page 28:

     “You first,” he said sharply, pointing at the flour-monger.