bummaree

plural bummarees

1. UKdatedA porter or dealer of fish at Billingsgate Fish Market in London.

   1 more example

   The bummaree is the jobber or speculator on the fish-exchange. Perhaps on every busy morning 100 men buy a quantity of fish, which they account likely to be remunerative, and retail it, or dispose of it in lots to the fishmongers or costermongers. Few if any of these dealers, however, are merely bummarees. A salesman, if he have disposed of the fish consigned to himself, will turn bummaree if any bargain tempt him. Or a fishmonger may purchase twice the quantity he requires for his own trade, in order to procure a cheaper stock, and “bummaree” what he does not require.

   1851, Henry Mayhew, “Of the Forestalling of Markets and the Billingsgate Bummarees”, in London Labour and the London Poor

2. UKA person fulfilling a similar function at the Smithfield Meat Market in London.