▪ I. fogger1
(ˈfɒgə(r))
[Of somewhat obscure history; but prob. derived from Fugger, the surname of a renowned family of merchants and financiers of Augsburg in the 15th and 16th c.
The name passed as an appellative into several European langs. In German fugger, fucker, focker (see Grimm) has had the senses ‘monopolist, engrosser’, ‘usurer’, ‘man of great wealth’, ‘great merchant’, and, in certain dialects (doubtless originally through ironical use), ‘huckster, pedlar.’ Kilian 1598 has Flem. focker ‘monopolist, universal dealer’ (monopola, pantopola), giving fuggerus and fuccardus as popular mod.L. equivalents; and in mod.Du. rijke fokker is an avaricious rich man. Walloon foukeur and Sp. f{uacu}car are contemptuous designations for a man of great wealth. A ‘petty Fugger’ would mean one who on a small scale practises the dishonourable devices for gain poularly attributed to great financiers; it seems possible that the phrase ‘petty fogger of the law’, applied in this sense to some notorious person, may have caught the popular fancy, and so have given rise to the specialized use in sense 1. Sense 2 was already developed in Ger. dialects (see Grimm), though the channel by which it came to England is unknown. Cf. fooker.]
† 1. A person given to underhand practices for the sake of gain; chiefly, a contemptuous designation for a lawyer of a low class. Usually preceded by petty (see pettifogger). Obs.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 320 As for this pettie fogger, this false fellowe that is in no credite or countenance. 1577 Harrison England ii. ix. (1877) i. 206 Brokers betweene the pettie foggers of the lawe and the common people. 1588 M. Kyffin Terence's Andria iv. v, I should be exclaimed vpon to bee a beggerly fogger, greedily hunting after heritage. c 1600 Norden Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728) 27 The baser sorte of people [are]..verie litigious..by meanes wherof the Fogers and Petie Lawiers..gett vnto themselues..great advauntage. |
2. dial. ‘A huckster; a petty chapman carrying small wares from village to village’ (Forby Voc. E. Anglia, a 1825).
| 1800 Larwood Norf. Dialogue in Skeat Nine Spec. Eng. Dialects (E.D.S.) 119 The fogger [in the ‘translation’ rendered ‘the man at the chandler's shop’]. 1805 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. III. 60 All hawkers, foggers, and pedlars. |
3. A middleman in the nail and chain trade.
| 1868 Morn. Star 10 Mar., Down with the ‘foggers’, says I. 1871 Gd. Words 610 Where, as is often the case, the ‘fogger’ keeps a public-house, the truck system is so worked as to foster drunkenness. 1888 Times 29 Nov. 9/5 The nailers..are at the mercy of ‘foggers’ or factors. |
▪ II. fogger2 dial.
(ˈfɒgə(r))
[perh. f. fog v.1 + -er1; the word has a curious resemblance to Du. fokker breeder of cattle, f. fokken vb.]
An agricultural labourer chiefly engaged in feeding and attending to cattle.
| 1851 in Berksh. Gloss. 1858 Hughes Scouring White Horse 75, I found Joe with his fogger..looking at some calves. 1879 Jefferies Amateur Poacher (1889) 223 A fogger going to fodder his cattle came across a pheasant lying dead on the path. |
▪ III. fogger3
(ˈfɒgə(r))
[f. fog v.2 + -er1.]
One who ‘fogs’ on a railway, a fog-signalman.
| 1881 Echo 5 Nov. 1/5 The ‘foggers’ place their signals on the line at some little distance from the signal-post. |