Affixes

A variety of terms exist for persons who sell goods, such as cheesemonger, costermonger (originally an apple seller, from costard, a large cooking apple), fishmonger, and ironmonger (in British usage, a seller of hardware such as tools and household implements, originally of iron). The term has broadened to refer to a person who promotes or disseminates something, often in a negative sense: newsmonger, scaremonger, scandalmonger, warmonger. The form is somewhat active, with words like fearmonger, powermonger, and smutmonger appearing in recent years, mainly in journalism.