Haberdasher
In the United Kingdom, a haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, and zips; in the United States, the term refers instead to a retailer who sells men's clothing, including suits, shirts, and neckties.
The sewing articles are called haberdashery in British English; the corresponding term is notions in American English.Origin and use
The word haberdasher appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It is derived from the Anglo-French word hapertas meaning "small ware". A word or unknown origin. A haberdasher would retail small wares, the goods of the peddler, while a mercer would specialize in "linens, silks, fustian, worsted piece-goods and bedding".
Saint Louis IX, King of France 1226–70, is the patron saint of French haberdashers. In Belgium and elsewhere in Continental Europe, Saint Nicholas remains their patron saint, while Saint Catherine was adopted by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers in the City of London.
