Huckster

A huckster is anyone who sells something or serves biased interests, using pushy or showy tactics. Historically, the term meant any type of peddler or vendor, but over time it has assumed pejorative connotations. The original meaning of huckster is a person who sells small articles, either door-to-door or from a stall or small store, like a peddler or hawker. The term probably derives from the Middle English hucc, meaning "to haggle". The word was in use circa 1200 (as "huccsteress"). During the medieval period, the word assumed the feminine word ending "ster" as in huckster, reflecting the fact that most hucksters were women. The word assumed various spellings at different times: hukkerye, hukrie, hockerye, huckerstrye or hoxterye. The word was still in use in England in the 1840s, when it appeared as a black-market occupation. It is related to the Middle Dutch hokester, hoekster and the Middle Low German höker, but appears earlier than any of these. In the United States, there developed a connotation of trickery - the huckster might trick others into buying cheap imitation products as if they were the real thing. The term "huckster" was used in different ways across Europe and later ended up taking on different meanings at different times. In Scotland, the term "huckster" referred to a person, usually a woman, who bought goods, watered them down, and resold them in tiny quantity to others who were too poor to buy quality products available at market value. These items tended to be in the poorer quality range, since economy was paramount. Scots burghs often felt the need to control hucksters because they operated without a stall, on the economic fringes. In particular, they were subject of accusations of forestalling, in this case the practice of buying goods wholesale, "before the stall" and therefore before tax was paid. In England and Europe during the medieval period, the term "huckster" was synonymous with peddler.