mercer
(ˈmɜːsə(r))
Also 4 mercere, 5 meercere, 5–6 merser, 6 marsar.
[a. F. mercier (from 13th c.) = Pr. mercier, mercer, Sp. mercero, Pg. mercieiro, It. merciajo:—popular L. *merciārius, f. L. merci-, merx merchandise.]
One who deals in textile fabrics, esp. a dealer in silks, velvets, and other costly materials (in full silk-mercer). Also, occas. (as in Fr.) a small-ware dealer. (For an obsolete use, see quot. 1696.)
| [c 1123 in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1899) July 429 Stephanus mercer.] a 1225 Ancr. R. 66 Þe wreche peoddare more noise he makeð to ȝeien his sope, þen a riche mercer al his deorewurðe ware. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. vii. 255, I haue..ymade many a knyȝte bothe mercere and drapere. 1464 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb. Cl.) 248 Payd ffor x. ȝerdys sarsynet to Thomas Rowson merser in Chepesyde, xx. s. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 152 Neyther marchaunt ne mercer, groser, draper, ne yet ony other crafte. 1554 Machyn Diary (Camden) 71 The compene of the Clarkes, and of the Marsars. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. iii. 11 Then is there heere one M{supr} Caper, at the suite of Master Three-Pile the Mercer, for some foure suites of Peach-colour'd Satten. 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Mercer, in the City one that deals only in Silks and Stuffs; In Country Towns, one that Trades in all sorts of Linen, Woollen, Silk, and Grocery Wares. 1778 F. Burney Evelina x. (1791) 20 The shops are really very entertaining, especially the mercers. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1864) II. 539 A row of pins, arranged as neatly as in the papers sold at the mercers'. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. II. iv. 196 This second cousin was a Middlemarch mercer. |
† b. the mercer's book: proverbial in the Elizabethan period with reference to the debts of a gallant.
| 1591 Nashe Prognost. D 1 b, Diuers young Gentlemen shall creepe further into the Mercers Booke in a Moneth, then they can get out in a yere. 1591 Greene Farew. Follie To Gent. Stud. (1617), Such Wagges as..haue marched in the Mercers booke to please their Mistris eye with their brauery. 1592 ― Quip Upst. Courtier D, A clownes sonne must be clapt in a veluet pantophle, and a veluet breech, though the presumptuous asse be drownd in the Mercers booke. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iii. i, How many yards of veluet dost thou thinke they containe? Hora... Faith, sir, your mercers booke Will tell you with more patience, then I can. |