What word that means 'cheap' or 'gaudy' is derived from the practice of trinkets sold at St. Audrey's fair in England?
"brightly coloured silk, were sold—these were called ""tawdry lace"". ""Tawdry"", a corruption of ""Saint Audrey"", now means ""pertaining to the nature of cheap and gaudy finery"". Two other fairs, the 15‑day festival of St Lambert, first granted in 1312 and the 22‑day fair beginning on the Vigil of the Ascension, first granted in 1318. The festival of St Lambert had stopped by the eighteenth century. St Etheldreda's and the Vigil of the Ascension markets still continue, although the number of days have been considerably reduced and the dates have changed. Present-day annual events in Ely include Aquafest, which has been"
"those who came to their fair; eventually even the smallest fair would have had a court to adjudicate on offences and disputes arising within the fairground, called a ""pye powder"" court (from Old French ""pieds pouldres"", literally ""dusty feet"", meaning an itinerant trader, from Medieval Latin ""pedes pulverosi""). The chaotic nature of the Stagshaw Bank Fair with masses of people and animals and stalls inspired the Newcastle colloquialism ""like a Stagey Bank Fair"" to describe a general mess. The American county fair is featured in E. B. White's ""Charlotte's Web"". Fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre), also known as"
"""cheap"" ('low price', a shortening of ""good ceap"", 'good buy'), though by the 18th century this association may have begun to be inferred. Other cities and towns in England that have a Cheapside include Ambleside, Ascot, Barnsley, Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Derby, Halifax, Knaresborough, Lancaster, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Nottingham, Preston, Reading, Wakefield and Wolverhampton. There is also a Cheapside in Bridgetown, Barbados; Lexington, Kentucky, US; Greenfield, Massachusetts, US; Saint Helier, Jersey; and London, Ontario, Canada. Cheapside is the former site of one of the principal produce markets in London, ""cheap"" broadly meaning ""market"" in medieval English. Many of the"
"Haberdasher A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons and zippers (in the United Kingdom), or a men's outfitter, often providing one of custom bespoke orders of various requirements. (American English). The sewing articles are called haberdashery, or ""notions"" (American English). The word appears in Chaucer's ""Canterbury Tales"". Haberdashers were initially peddlers, thus sellers of small items such as needles and buttons. The word is not thought to have connection with an Old Norse word akin to the Icelandic , which means ""peddlers' wares"" or the sack in which the peddler carried them."
"Company of Haberdashers in the City of London. Haberdasher A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons and zippers (in the United Kingdom), or a men's outfitter, often providing one of custom bespoke orders of various requirements. (American English). The sewing articles are called haberdashery, or ""notions"" (American English). The word appears in Chaucer's ""Canterbury Tales"". Haberdashers were initially peddlers, thus sellers of small items such as needles and buttons. The word is not thought to have connection with an Old Norse word akin to the Icelandic , which means ""peddlers' wares"" or"
"fair, held there on the Thursday after Pentecost. A ""Green Goose"" was a young or mid-summer goose, and a slang term for a cuckold or a 'low' woman. In 1630, John Taylor, a poet wrote ""At Bow, the Thursday after Pentecost, There is a fair of green geese ready rost, Where, as a goose is ever dog cheap there, The sauce is over somewhat sharp and deare."", taking advantage of the double entendre and continuing with other verses describing the drunken rowdy behaviour of the crowds. By the mid-19th century, the authorities had had enough and the fair was suppressed."
"Stourbridge fair Stourbridge fair was an annual fair held on Stourbridge Common in Cambridge, England. At its peak it was the largest fair in Europe and was the inspiration for Bunyan's ""Vanity Fair"". The fair was one of four important medieval fairs held in Cambridge: Garlic Fair, Reach Fair, Midsummer Fair and Stourbridge Fair. In 1199, King John granted the Leper Chapel at ""Steresbrigge"" in Cambridge dispensation to hold a three-day fair to raise money to support the lepers. The first such fair was held in 1211 around the Feast of the Holy Cross (14 September) on the open land"
"Mock auction A mock auction is a scam usually operated in a street market, disposal sale or similar environment, where cheap and low quality goods are sold at high prices by a team of confidence tricksters. In 19th Century New York, mock auctions revolved around the sale of cigars, horses and high quality furniture. In Denver, confidence man Soapy Smith and his Soap Gang auctioned off shiny brass watches as being made of gold. Other items were soap and candy wrapped with cash prizes. In more recent years the focus has been on electronic consumer goods. Typically, during the sale,"
"by the seventeenth century this area had become known as Babylon. Although the reason for the name is unclear, by 1850 it was in official use on maps. The building of the Ely to King's Lynn railway in 1847 cut the area off even further, and the inhabitants could only cross to Ely by boat. Annual fairs have been held in Ely since the twelfth century. Saint Audrey's (Etheldreda's) seven-day fair, held either side of 23 June, was first granted officially by Henry I to the abbot and convent on 10 October 1189. At this fair, cheap necklaces, made from"
"""Yankee swap"" or ""Dirty Santa"".) Chinese auction A Chinese auction is a combination of a raffle and an auction that is typically featured at charity, church festival and numerous other events. It can also be known as penny social, penny sale, tricky tray or pick-a-prize according to local custom, or to avoid causing offense. It is unclear whether this type of auction actually originated in China; it is much more likely that the term derives from ""chance auction,"" which is also another name for this type of auction. The term ""Chinese"" may have been used in this case to convey"
"Chinese auction A Chinese auction is a combination of a raffle and an auction that is typically featured at charity, church festival and numerous other events. It can also be known as penny social, penny sale, tricky tray or pick-a-prize according to local custom, or to avoid causing offense. It is unclear whether this type of auction actually originated in China; it is much more likely that the term derives from ""chance auction,"" which is also another name for this type of auction. The term ""Chinese"" may have been used in this case to convey that this type of auction"
"""auction"" is derived from the Latin ""augeō"", which means ""I increase"" or ""I augment"". For most of history, auctions have been a relatively uncommon way to negotiate the exchange of goods and commodities. In practice, both haggling and sale by set-price have been significantly more common. Indeed, before the seventeenth century the few auctions that were held were sporadic. Nonetheless, auctions have a long history, having been recorded as early as 500 B.C. According to Herodotus, in Babylon auctions of women for marriage were held annually. The auctions began with the woman the auctioneer considered to be the most beautiful"
"the fact that the standard minimum was fourpence, so many passengers paid with a sixpenny piece, allowing the cabbie to keep the twopence change as a tip. The slang name ""Joey"" was transferred to the silver threepenny pieces in use in the first third of the twentieth century. In ""A Little Princess"" by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Sara Crewe picks up a fourpenny piece from the street and uses it to buy buns. The original story was set in 1888. John o' Groats, a place name in the north of Scotland, is not derived from ""groat"" but is a corruption of"
"Peddler A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a canvasser, chapman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, monger, or solicitor, is a traveling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies. In London more specific terms were used, such as costermonger. Peddlers have a long and colourful history. From antiquity, peddlers filled the gaps in the formal market economy by providing consumers with the convenience of door-to-door service. They operated alongside town markets and fairs where they often"
"attributed to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who served the figurines to foreign dignitaries. Today, however, they are generally served around Christmas. Gingerbread was a traditional confectionery sold at popular fairs , often given as a treat or token of affection to children and lovers ""sweethearts"" and known as a ""fairing"" of gingerbread - the name retained now only by Cornish fairings. This crisp brittle type of gingerbread is now represented by the very popular commercial version called the ginger nut biscuit. Parkin is a form of soft gingerbread cake made with oatmeal and treacle which is popular in"
"Aphrodite"", a story by Rhys Davies, titled ""A Pig in a Poke"", was published, in which a Welsh collier takes a woman from London for his wife and regrets it. (Boulton 1993: p. 278) The title of Georges Feydeau's 1888 play ""Chat en poche"" is taken from the French expression. Pig in a poke The idioms pig in a poke and sell a pup (or buy a pup) refer to a confidence trick originating in the Late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce, but cats and dogs were not. The scheme entailed the sale of a suckling pig in a"
"two separate statuettes of a small boy and girl, each dressed in adults' clothing. China fairings are so named because they were given away as prizes at fairs in the Victorian era, in much the same way that we would win a coconut at a fair today, although some were manufactured simply for sale. They first started appearing in the middle of the nineteenth century and remained popular until the start of the First World War. Genuine fairings are now keenly sought by serious collectors. In the United Kingdom they can range in price from a few pounds for the"
"low wages, often allowing eggs to be sold individually and half loaves to be brought. Common essential items like tea, paraffin and butter would be sold by the penny's worth. Mrs Gregory also allowed customers to have items on the tick, meaning that she would give them the items on the basis that they would pay her when they received their wages. She would write what each customer owed in a book and tick their names off after they had paid her, hence the phrase 'on the tick'. Gregory's General store was rebuilt at the Black Country Living Museum in"
"but the most common colours accounted for a large proportion of output, so scarce colours can today command very high prices on the collector market. Carnival glass has been known by many other names in the past: aurora glass, dope glass, rainbow glass, taffeta glass, and disparagingly as 'poor man's Tiffany'. Its current name was adopted by collectors in the 1950s from the fact that it was sometimes given as prizes at carnivals, fetes, and fairgrounds. However, that can be misleading as people tend to think that all of it was distributed in this way but evidence suggests that the"
"my roses red, Fol-de-dee! My strawberries sweet, I can of them spare, As I go on to Strawberry Fair."" Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-li-do, Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-dee. I want to purchase a generous heart, Singing, singing, Butter-cups and Daisies A tongue that neither is nimble or tart. Tol-de-dee! An honest mind, but such trifles are rare I doubt if they're found at Strawberry Fair. Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-li-do, Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-dee. The price I offer, my sweet pretty maid Singing, singing, Butter-cups and Daisies A ring of gold on your finger displayed, Tol-de-dee! So come- make over to me your ware, In church"
"unnecessary and gratuitous gifting of something somewhat taboo, like a joke, or a sure bet, or illicit money exchanges."" The practice of tipping began in Tudor England. ""By the 17th century, it was expected that overnight guests to private homes would provide sums of money, known as vails, to the host’s servants. Soon afterwards, customers began tipping in London coffeehouses and other commercial establishments"". The etymology for the synonym for tipping, ""gratuity"", dates back either to the 1520s, from ""graciousness"", from the French ""gratuité"" (14th century) or directly from Medieval Latin ""gratuitas"", ""free gift"", probably from earlier Latin ""gratuitus"", ""free,"
"Mercery Mercery (from French ""mercerie"", the notions trade) initially referred to silk, linen, and fustian textiles imported to England in the 12th century. The term mercery later extended to goods made of these and the sellers of those goods. The term mercer for cloth merchants (from French ""mercier"", ""notions dealer"") is now largely obsolete. Mercers were formerly merchants or traders who dealt in cloth, typically fine cloth that was not produced locally. Inventories of mercers in small towns, however, suggest that many were shopkeepers who dealt in various dry commodities other than cloth. Related occupations include haberdasher, draper and cloth"
"modes of selling: hawking their goods from door to door, setting up shops in busy market places or stationing themselves at royal households. Sellers of fish, salt and grain hawked their goods, the textile merchants sold cloths from their shops in urban markets and the goldsmith, the lapidary and sellers of sandalwood and ivory patronised the aristocrats' quarters. Merchants dealt in conches and ivory. Most trade was by barter. Paddy was the most commonly accepted medium of exchange, followed by purified salt. Honey and roots were exchanged for fish liver oil and arrack, while sugarcane and rice flakes were traded"
"racehorses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, continues this tradition of conducting auctions in guineas. The vendor's commission is 5%. The word ""guineas"" is still found in the names of some British horse races, even though their prize funds are now fixed in pounds – such as the 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse. A threepenny bit (pronounced thrupney bit) was known as a ""tickey"" in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. In Australia it was known as a tray (also spelt trey), or a tray bit, from the French ""trois"" meaning three. Fourpence was often known as a"
"Merchet Merchet Also: -ett, -ete, -eit, -eat, -iett, -i(e)te, -iatte, mershet(e, marchet, -eit, market was a fine paid on a marriage during the Middle Ages in England. The word derives from the plural form of daughter, ""merched"", in old Welsh. Merchet was payment to a peasant's lord, whether by the persons marrying, or by a father for his son or daughter, or by a brother for his sister. Theories regarding the practice include recompense for the loss of a worker, but one idea most prominent when the word ""merchet"" was used, is that of ransom--and not necessarily the ransom of"
"find a market for items they considered ""good for nothing"" worn-out cast-off tools and implements. From quite early times, Standley established what Kate Duncan calls the ""scrim… [of] large and disparate natural history specimens and curios dangling from the ceiling and standing about"" that dominates the shop visually and ""transform[s] even the known into the curious"". Items for sale in recent times range from dime-store trinkets to a $10,000 totem pole. As of 2007, these included a $1.50 tailpipe whistle, bullwhips, jumping beans, matreshka dolls from Russia, first-rate vegetable ivory carvings, goatskin imitation shrunken heads from Ecuador, and the usual"
"auctions. Candle auction A candle auction, or auction by the candle, is a variation on the typical English auction that became popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. In a candle auction, the end of the auction is signaled by the expiration of a candle flame, which was intended to ensure that no one could know exactly when the auction would end and make a last-second bid. Sometimes, other unpredictable processes, such as a footrace, were used in place of the expiration of a candle. Auction by the candle was known in England by 1641, when it is mentioned in"
"Dutch auction A Dutch auction is one of several similar kinds of auctions. Most commonly, it means an auction in which the auctioneer begins with a high asking price, and lowers it until some participant accepts the price, or it reaches a predetermined reserve price. This has also been called a ""clock auction"" or ""open-outcry descending-price auction"". This type of auction is good for auctioning goods quickly, since a sale never requires more than one bid. Strategically, it's similar to a first-price sealed-bid auction. Dutch auction has its roots in the 17th-century Dutch flower market. A Dutch auction initially offers"
"spellings such as ""faire"" or ""fayre"". These spellings originate from the Middle English ""feire"" (variant spellings include ""feyre"", ""faire"", and ""fayre""), which comes from the Anglo-French word ""feire"". They can also be referred to as ""Elizabethan"", ""Medieval"", or ""Tudor"" fairs or festivals. ""Ren Fair"" and ""Ren Fest"" are popular colloquialisms. A German ""Mittelaltermarkt"" (literally ""medieval market"") is very similar to a Renaissance fair. Many Catalan towns hold ""Mercats Medievals"" (literally ""medieval markets"") as part of their annual festivities. Within the Renaissance fair community, there is a difference of opinion as to how authentic a fair ought to be. Some believe"
"to Cloth Fair to test the measures for cloth, using their standard silver yard, until 1854. The annual fair grew to become the chief cloth sale in the kingdom. By 1641, the fair had achieved international importance. It had outgrown the former location along Cloth Fair, and around the Priory graveyard to now cover four parishes: Christ Church, Great and Little St Bartholomew’s and St Sepulchre’s. The fair featured sideshows, prize-fighters, musicians, wire-walkers, acrobats, puppets, freaks and wild animals. The fair was suppressed in 1855 by the City authorities for encouraging debauchery and public disorder. The ""Newgate Calendar"" had denounced"
"of value, and such hazards as war-time paper drives, the penny dreadfuls, particularly the earliest ones, are fairly rare today. Some items that have been named after this topic include a song called ""Penny Dreadfuls"" by Animal Collective, the Irish literary magazine ""The Penny Dreadful"" and a Showtime horror television series set in Victorian England titled ""Penny Dreadful"". Sources Penny dreadful Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to a story published in"
"ancient Greeks in wedding processions, and to have been used by them to deck the altar of Hymenaios. The supposition that the tree was the source of Jesus's crown of thorns doubtless gave rise around 1911 to the tradition among the French peasantry that it utters groans and cries on Good Friday, and probably also to the old popular superstition in Great Britain and Ireland that ill luck attended the uprooting of hawthorns. Branches of Glastonbury thorn (""C. monogyna"" 'Biflora', sometimes called ""C. oxyacantha"" var. ""praecox""), which flowers both in December and in spring, were formerly highly valued in England,"
"on ""leet"", the manorial court day); the lamb-ale (held at lamb-shearing); the Whitsun-ale (held at Whitsun), the clerk-ale, the church-ale etc. The word ""bridal"" originally derives from bride-ale, the wedding feast organised to raise money for the couple. The bid-ale, once very common throughout England, was a benefit feast to which a general invitation was given, and all those attending were expected to make some contribution to help the object of the benefit, usually a poor person or family or some other charitable cause. These parish festivals were of much ecclesiastical and social importance in medieval England. The chief purpose"