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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
Nardine Saad, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2024
Recently, the dwindling revenues forced her to get a second job, also in fish, as a salesperson at another monger’s shop.
—Josh Lederman, NBC News, 1 Jan. 2024
Bedfords’ mongers tasted the trio on a few house favorites, and Kat grabbed some olives, pickles, and a wedge of Deer Creek Rattlesnake for pre-dinner snacking.
—Madison Trapkin, Saveur, 6 Dec. 2023
Some rumor mongers even turn a tidy buck in the process, and have reportedly gone so far as to illicitly fly drones over production lots to glean information.
—Herb Scribner, Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2023
The fish mongers worked with the tourism office on the Île d'Yeu to find a new home for the small female lobster.
—Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 20 Sep. 2023
Pskov is over 400 miles north of Ukraine, but less than an hour’s drive from the borders of Estonia and Latvia, a fact that led conspiracy mongers to claim the drones had originated from the former.
—Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 31 Aug. 2023
Stew Peters is a far-right media host and conspiracy monger, infamous for his unhinged film claiming Covid-19 is caused by synthetic snake venom.
—Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, 7 June 2023
Still, gossip mongers and suck-ups won’t go away unless managers remove the incentives to such behavior, while rewarding positive actions like collaboration.
—Matthew Boyle, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2023
Andrew Higgins, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2024
School board member, son of immigrants decries 'fear mongering'
Miguel Aranda, a member of Whitewater's school board, has also been frustrated about the way the migrants have been discussed by leaders.
—Sophie Carson, Journal Sentinel, 16 Jan. 2024
Furthermore, the dispute includes implications of witchcraft, shrines – most of which are perpetuating ignorance, xenophobia and fear mongering.
—Shelby Stewart, Essence, 12 Jan. 2024
Jost went on, as a picture showed on screen of the disgraced Trump ally with black shoe dye running down his face during one of his post-election conspiracy mongering press conferences.
—William Vaillancourt, Rolling Stone, 17 Dec. 2023
High crime and racial fear mongering is the price the little people must pay to keep the bloated government salaries and pensions going to the right people.
—Scott Centorino, National Review, 6 Dec. 2023
Their religion, the tenets of which are based on kindness, caring, and love is being co-opted in the name of something entirely other that derives its strength from fear mongering and obfuscation.
—Brent Lang, Variety, 21 Sep. 2023
Make no mistake: such fear mongering is dangerous, and puts real people's lives at risk.
—Wesley Lowery, CBS News, 25 June 2023
Liberal leaders and lawmakers have accused their conservative counterparts of fear mongering and misusing LGBTQ+ rights as a political wedge.
—Kevin Rector, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'monger.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near monger
Cite this Entry
“Monger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monger. Accessed 3 Jun. 2024.
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