bummaree

bummaree

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

bummaree (plural bummarees)

1. (UK, dated) A porter or dealer of fish at Billingsgate Fish Market in London.
   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Of the Forestalling of Markets and the Billingsgate Bummarees”, in London Labour and the London Poor:

     The bummaree is the jobber or speculator on the fish-exchange. Perhaps on every busy morning 100 men buy a quantity of fish, which they account likely to be remunerative, and retail it, or dispose of it in lots to the fishmongers or costermongers. Few if any of these dealers, however, are merely bummarees. A salesman, if he have disposed of the fish consigned to himself, will turn bummaree if any bargain tempt him. Or a fishmonger may purchase twice the quantity he requires for his own trade, in order to procure a cheaper stock, and “bummaree” what he does not require.

2. (UK) A person fulfilling a similar function at the Smithfield Meat Market in London.