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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
Eric Cortellessa / Gastonia, TIME, 3 Nov. 2024
Culturally, the combination of blatant racist fear mongering and the anti-woke movement has delivered their message for the future.
—Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 28 Oct. 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 26 Nov. 2024.
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