different between fishmonger vs fishwife

English

Etymology

fish +? monger

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f???m???.?(?)/

Noun

fishmonger (plural fishmongers)

1. (Britain) A person who sells fish.
2. (Britain, rare) A fishmonger's, a fishmonger's shop: a shop that sells fish.
   • 1931, Grace Hegger Lewis, Half a Loaf,^[1] H. Liveright (publisher), page 225:

     And Susan, sure of this inevitable answer, would ask Cook to pop into the fishmonger for a nice bit of salmon, […]

   • 1990, Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Light Years, Simon and Schuster (1995), ?ISBN, page 294:

     A nice woman at the fishmonger in Earl’s Court Road—she had to walk miles to find a fish shop—told her how to cook the fillets of plaice she bought.

   • 2007, Leslie Ann Bosher, To the Manor Drawn, Murdoch Books, ?ISBN, page 157:

     Cornish peppered mackerel, smoked haddock, Scottish herring and pearl-white skate wings are all laid on a bed of crushed ice at the fishmonger.

3. (archaic) A pimp.

   "Excellent well; you are a fishmonger." - William Shakespeare, said by Hamlet to Polonius. (Act 2, Scene 2)

Synonyms

• (person who sells fish): fishman, (formal, rare) ichthyopolist

Hyponyms

• (person who sells fish): (female): fishmongeress (fishmongress), fishwife, fishwoman, piscatrix (historical)

Translations

English

Etymology

fish +? wife (“now-obsolete meaning woman”). (see also midwife)

Noun

fishwife (plural fishwives)

1. (archaic) A woman who sells or works with fish; a female fishmonger.
2. (derogatory) A vulgar, abusive or nagging woman with a loud, unpleasant voice.
3. (Tyneside, derogatory) A person, especially a woman, with poor personal hygiene.

Synonyms

• (woman who sells fish): fishmongeress (fishmongress), fishwoman, piscatrix (historical)
• (nagging woman): See Thesaurus:shrew

Hypernyms

• (woman who sells fish): fishmonger

Coordinate terms

• (woman who sells fish): fishman

Translations

Scots

Etymology

fish +? wife

Noun

fishwife (plural fishwifes)

1. fishwife
2. (derogatory) woman of coarse behaviour, temperament and vocabulary