(also ‘coster’; plural: ‘costermongers‘; pronunciation: the letter ‘c’ is said with a ‘k’ sound, and the letter ‘cost’ rhyme with the word “cost” — ‘coster…monger’)
a person who sells fruit, vegetables, fish, or other goods from a small cart/donkey cart, barrow, or a stall or standing by the streets, or walking along the streets pushing the cart or barrow;
Technically a costermonger is a hawker; however, what differentiates a costermonger from a hawker is that a costermonger sells his ware from a barrow, cart, or has a stall or standing in the market, whereas a hawker usually carries his ware on a ‘shallow’, a kind of tray carried on one’s head, and walks the streets crying out his ware!
The name and the profession of a costermonger may have gone out of use in London or in other parts of Europe by the end of the 19th century, but we still see costermongers selling fruit and vegetables near market places and on the streets of towns and cities in parts of Asia, especially in the Indian sub-continent.
According to a blog post, a costermonger in the past never stole anything from another costermonger; in fact, all the costermongers continued their trade with cooperation and care for one another in such a way that even the local petty thieves would stay away from them.