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Peddlers (especially fish merchants) have been called mongers for more than 1000 years. The term traces to a Latin noun meaning "trader." Initially, it was an honorable term, but every profession has its bad apples, and the snake-oil salesmen of the bunch gave monger a bad reputation. By the middle of the 16th century, the term often implied that a merchant was dishonorable and contemptible. Nowadays, monger is typically appended to another word to identify a trader of a particular type. Some combinations (such as fishmonger) suggest respectable commerce, whereas others (such as rumormonger, scandalmonger, and hypemonger) imply that a person is trading or spreading information in a careless or deceptive manner.
Examples of monger in a Sentence
Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 9 Sep. 2024
Gossip mongers ate up the near-naked photos of the lead actors on set, the co-stars’ flirty interviews and online banter, and their exchanges of intimate looks during promotional appearances.
—Nardine Saad, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2024
Lalee Ibssa, ABC News, 13 Sep. 2024
Springfield has seen at least 33 bomb threats since Vance and Trump began their fear mongering, closing schools, government offices and medical facilities.
—Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 26 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for monger 
Dictionary Entries Near monger
Cite this Entry
“Monger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monger. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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