Haberdasher
A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons and zippers. In U.S. English, haberdasher is another term for a men’s outfitter.
A haberdasher’s shop or the items sold therein are called haberdashery.
Obsolete meanings of the term “haberdasher” refer to a “dealer in, or maker of, hats and caps”.
The word appears in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Haberdashers were initially pedlars, sellers of small wares, such as needles, buttons, etc. The word could derive from the Icelandic haprtask ‘pedlars’ wares’ or the sack in which the pedlar carries them. In this sense, a haberdasher Scandinavian name would be very close to a mercer French name. A haberdasher would retail smallwares, the goods of the pedlar, while a mercer would specialize in “linens, silks, fustian, worsted piece-goods and bedding”.
Saint Louis IX, the King of France 1226–70, is supposedly the patron saint of haberdashers.