A person who sells fruit or vegetables from a cart or stall in the street, especially in Britain.
Short for 'costermonger,' which originally meant someone who sold costards (a type of large apple). The abbreviated form 'coster' became the common colloquial term for street fruit and vegetable vendors.
The word 'costard' for a big apple vanished from English, but its shortened nickname 'coster' survived—showing how language keeps fragments of forgotten things alive in unexpected ways.
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