Meaning & use
mercer
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Meaning
nouncountableold-fashionedBritish
A trader who sells cloth, especially expensive fabrics like silk and velvet; an occupation from the Middle Ages.
Grammar: Mainly found in historical writing: the mercer's shop.
Patterns
- a mercer of silk
- the Mercers' Company
The mercer unrolled a bolt of silk for the wealthy customer.
In medieval London, a successful mercer could become very rich.
Her grandfather was a mercer who traded in fine velvet.
Word forms
| plural | mercers |
|---|
Common combinations
- wealthy mercer
- The wealthy mercer lived in a tall house near the market.
- mercer's shop
- The mercer's shop was full of silks and ribbons.
- Mercers' Company
- He joined the Mercers' Company, one of the old London guilds.
- medieval mercer
- A medieval mercer imported cloth from Italy.
Synonyms and how they differ
- draper
- Draper is the wider British word for a cloth seller and does not stress the expensive silks that a mercer handled.
- clothier
- A clothier makes or sells clothes or cloth, so the word is broader and more modern than mercer.
- textile merchant
- Textile merchant is the neutral modern phrase for a trader in fabrics.
- haberdasher
- A haberdasher sells small sewing items like ribbons and buttons, which differs from selling cloth by length.
Word family
- mercery noun
- the goods or trade of a mercer
- mercerize verb
- to treat cotton thread with chemicals to make it stronger and shiny, named after John Mercer
- mercerized adjective
- treated to give cotton a smooth, glossy finish
- merchant noun
- a person who buys and sells goods
Commonly confused: mercer or mercenary?
mercer vs mercenary
A mercenary is a soldier hired for money, while a mercer is a dealer in cloth.
Practice
In a story about medieval London, who would you visit to buy a length of silk?
Choose one answer.
A mercer traded in fine fabrics such as silk. A blacksmith works metal, a falconer keeps hunting birds and a chandler sells candles.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mercer”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.