peddler

What it means

1. An itinerant seller of small goods.

   Synonyms: hawker, chapman, huckster, monger, colporteur, solicitor

2. A drug dealer.

   Here's a cure for all your troubles Here's an end to all distress It's the old dope peddler With his powdered happiness

   1953, Tom Lehrer, “The Old Dope Peddler”, in Songs by Tom Lehrer, Pantheon, published 1981, page 18

3. figurativelyA fake-news disseminator; A conspiracy-theory propagator.

In a sentence

Here's a cure for all your troubles Here's an end to all distress It's the old dope peddler With his powdered happiness

1953, Tom Lehrer, “The Old Dope Peddler”, in Songs by Tom Lehrer, Pantheon, published 1981, page 18

Where it comes from

1. Middle Englishpeddere“hawker, peddler”
2. Middle Englishpedlere
3. Englishpeddler

From Middle English pedlere, pedlare, pedeler, alteration of Middle English peddere (“hawker, peddler”), of uncertain origin. Compare Medieval Latin pedārius, from Latin pedāre (“to furnish with feet; prop up”).