mercer
mercer — noun
1. someone whose business is buying and selling high-quality cloth, silk, and other
someone whose business is buying and selling high-quality cloth, silk, and other fine woven materials, especially in historical contexts.
The local mercer sold Eitan a roll of fine Chinese silk for his wedding coat.
collocation: 'sold [sb] [sth]' for mercer's trade
In eighteenth-century London, a successful mercer could own a large shop on a busy street.
historic context: eighteenth-century London
Putri's grandfather worked as a mercer and traded fine wool and velvet fabrics.
A well-known mercer named Kofi supplied velvet to the royal court for important ceremonies.
- draper
more common in British English; a draper typically sells cloth and clothing items, while a mercer specialised in expensive textiles like silk
- cloth merchant
modern, general term; less specific to luxury fabrics than 'mercer'
- textile merchant
broader in scope; can include bulk industrial materials as well as fine fabrics
用法筆記
Now largely historical; the word is rarely used for modern fabric retailers, who are simply called cloth merchants or fabric sellers.