ext_147905 ([identity profile] prettygoodword.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] 1word1day2015-10-08 08:25 am
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Thursday word: barbermonger

barbermonger (bar-bur-MON-gur) - n. (obs. slang) a fop.


Literally, one who frequents the barbershop for frequent haircuts. This is early Tudor Slang -- the Historical Thesaurus to the OED gives 1605 as the only year of use for this -- and the only reason it appears in unabridged dictionaries at all is that it's used in King Lear. Possibly it's a Shakespeare coinage that never took off? Regardless, his usage makes the best example -- from act II, scene ii, as Kent confronts Oswald:

Draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw!

---L.

[identity profile] kryptyd.livejournal.com 2015-10-08 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Nowt wrong with being a barbermonger. I think the culture of hanging around barber shops (which I only became aware of when I moved to London) is quite cool. There are certainly more disreputable places a young man could hang around.
med_cat: (SH education never ends)

[personal profile] med_cat 2015-10-10 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
Another great Shakespearean insult, and the etymology makes sense.